


UPPERTALE

by Incogito



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Female Frisk, Gen, Original Character(s), Post-Canon, Post-Genocide Route, Post-Pacifist Route
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-22
Updated: 2016-03-13
Packaged: 2018-05-02 19:10:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 33,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5260313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Incogito/pseuds/Incogito
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You <em>are</em> above the consequences”<br/><br/>Post true-pacifist... and post genocide.<br/>Frisk has sold their soul to Chara, who now has the ability to possess and control their body, and otherwise linger around in Frisk's mind as though they were two joined souls.<br/>...Except Human souls can't absorb other human souls, <em>right?</em></p>
<p>Another adventure ensues as the Monsters have finally made it to the surface and have entered the domain of Humans.  Even after some time, the two societies have not quite embraced each other so readily, though there is little friction between them.<br/>Threatened by Chara's wrath and with a whole new spectrum of soul-types and powerful magic revealed, it's up to Frisk to save the world of both Monsters and Humans...</p>
<p>...From herself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. START

**Author's Note:**

> “Don’t gain the world and lose your soul…”  
> -Bob Marley

**  
**

_I’ll inform you now before you do anything rash; there is nothing in the world that can be done for him,_ the voice in Frisk’s head stated with an air of authority.

Frisk sat on the edge of the sidewalk in front of her and Toriel’s home, looking up at the mountain in the distance.  It had been nearly two months since the monsters had made their exodus out of the mountain, and in that time the humans had welcomed the monsters with open arms, though a little reluctantly.  After over one thousand years, humans had nearly forgotten the existence of monsters, the old stories slowly becoming the stuff of folk-tales and myth.  However, with the return of monsters to the surface, they were granted a place back in society near the humans.  Neither group seemed quite ready to fully mingle with each other yet, so it was still rare for humans to live among monsters.  Frisk was one of those rare cases, having made her decision to live with Toriel and act as the monsters' ambassador.  Even if she had declined King Asgore's request, the other monsters would still have treated her as their hero and savior as they had been doing over the last couple months.  Despite the praise and being a bit of an idol in the eyes of both monsters and humans, though, all she could think about was who she had to leave behind.  Someone that Chara was intent on getting her to forget.

 _Besides,_  Chara went on, _even if there_ were _a way to rescue Asriel, you already know I would not let you pursue it.  You gave up that opportunity as payment in exchange for me bringing this world back.  All because you fell into that same driven mistake he did as a flower – curiosity.  Which, in turn, bred the Determination to see the thought through to the very end.  And that eventually decayed into the morbid drive to ‘complete’ that run, simply because you could._

Frisk did her best to ignore him.  The voice, Chara, hadn’t showed up in her mind until she had freed the monsters once and for all.  It was more than just a voice, though.  She remembered her dreams abruptly ending as though someone had woken her up during her first night staying with Toriel on the surface.  Except instead of seeing the ceiling of her new room from the perspective of laying on her bed, she found herself standing beside her bed, looking down onto her body.  She remembered how her body’s open eyes glowed a deep red like the manifestation of her own soul, and a sweet yet vacant smile stared up at her.  “Hello again,” her body spoke to her, “You have a debt that needs to be paid.  I think I’ll be collecting that now.”

It took all of Frisk’s strength, and probably Determination, to stop her body and its possessor from doing anything harmful.  Reaching a ghostly hand into her body and forcing the intruder out took a great deal of energy, so much so that by the time she finally made it through, she was already standing next to Toriel’s bed, her adoptive mother sound asleep and unaware what horrible tragedies could have taken place.

The next morning, she was awoken by Toriel, who ignorantly found it sweet that Frisk wanted to sleep near her and yet also didn’t want to wake her up.  Frisk could only assume that she had exerted so much power to take control again, that she collapsed on the floor by Toriel’s bed.  She remembered Chara’s visage standing next to Toriel in her mind’s eye, grinning playful daggers at her.  Chara seemed amused at Frisk’s desperation and decided to leave her friends and loved ones alone for the time being, though he made it clear he could take control again whenever he wished.  But seeing Frisk terrified at the threat was enough to satisfy Chara’s sadism.

The next few days were tiring due to the nights being mostly sleepless, too afraid to let her guard down around Chara’s presence.  Chara, however, proved to not be _completely_ megalomaniacal in his interactions with Frisk, promising her a good night’s rest without any threat to take control.  Eventually Frisk’s own body rebelled against her wishes and fell asleep, and she awoke the next morning with the mental projection of Chara sitting cross-legged on the floor, patiently looking off into the distance.  The days after that were much of the same attitude, with Chara’s threat of taking over and demolishing Frisk’s world ever present, yet at the same time with him also being a source of sage advice and wisdom whenever it was needed, where he seemed more content to merely tag along for the ride.

Her friends from the underground had taken notice that her attention was elsewhere at times, and she had to falsely explain that it was just an imaginary friend in her mind, which was nothing too suspicious for a child her age. This lie was to keep Chara from deciding that her friends knew too much about his existence and invoke violent consequences, which was met with Papyrus exclaiming how he once had an imaginary friend that was a flying monster made of spaghetti, but then flew off saying that they had a universe to run or something.  Chara seemed to be approving of the white-lie, which eased tensions considerably within Frisk, and she slowly became more okay with Chara's constant presence in her mind, though she never let her guard down until he'd swear to her he wouldn't take control.  He had been true to his word so far, and every interaction with him she had experienced to that point had been fair and orderly under the usage of deals and promises. She couldn't be too careful, but she also needed to be able to relax a bit.

And now, Frisk sat, staring at the distant Mount Ebott, waiting for the bus to her new school to arrive at the street corner by her and Toriel’s house.  Chara was hovering beside her, looking silently at the mountain as well while reading her thoughts.

“Hey, are you waiting for the bus?” came the voice of a young boy from her left.  Frisk looked over to see a short, redheaded boy with tight curls about her age briskly walking toward where she sat on the curb.  Frisk replied with a simple nod, which made the boy give a sigh of relief.  “Oh _good_ , it hasn’t come through here yet.  I missed the last two stops and was afraid I’d be late by walking there.  And on the first day, too!”

The boy exhaustedly whipped off his backpack and sat down next to her on the curb.  He looked over at Frisk again, offering his hand, “My name’s Sven.”

Frisk reached over to shake his outstretched hand.  “Frisk,” she casually introduced, foiling an attempt by Chara to distract her and get her to say his name.

Sven noticed she didn’t have a backpack with her and voiced his curiosity.  “Oh I don’t need one,” Frisk sheepishly responded, putting a hand over her pocket where the phone Alphys made for her sat.  She looked at how bulky his pack was.  “And it looks like you’re carrying enough for two.”

Sven patted the top of his bag.  “It’s stuff I have to bring for after school,” his voice got low as he leaned in close, “Don’t tell anyone, but I’m actually part of a secret club,” he eagerly spilled.

 _If it’s a secret, then he would be wise not to share such information.  Let’s see if we can find out more, try to come up with a way we can blackmail him to do what we ask._   Frisk mentally glared at Chara, who's mental image only grinned wider.

“It’s actually a secret organization with lots of kids from other areas,” Sven continued blabbing to Frisk in a hushed voice.  “It’s for kids who can do awesome stuff like lift cars and read minds and stuff, cool right!?”

 _Someone has been watching their anime a little too religiously,_ Chara quipped.  Frisk just smiled warmly before asking, “Can you do anything like that?”

Sven reeled back, looking around to see if anyone was watching.  The street was clear, so he opened his bag and pulled out a hefty-looking gauntlet, slipping it over his right hand.  He flexed his fingers, and in the middle of the palm a small, silvery glow began to emit light.  It rose up a couple inches out of the thick metal glove and grew to a small glowing sphere of silver flame.  “Truth is,” he said excitedly, “I’m training to be a sorcerer.  Legends say there used to be lots of people who could work magic, until the war that put away all the monsters.  Then it’s like hardly anyone used magic at all.”  He pulled his gaze away from the light and checked for Frisk’s reaction.  “People like me are rare, they say,” he continued, gleeful in Frisk’s frozen stare at the magical wisp.  “I can’t do anything like this normally still, I have to use this glove to draw out my soul’s power, but one day I’ll be strong enough to do all kinds of cool things!”

Frisk and Chara exchanged a nervous internal glance.  “You mentioned your ‘soul’s power’?” Frisk rhetorically asked.

“Yeah, y’know, the _calmanition_ or something of your whole being,” he replied, slipping off the glove and sticking it back in his backpack.  He was about to explain more, but Frisk cut him off.

“Where does this secret club meet?” she asked with sudden great interest.

Sven was taken aback by her reaction and sputtered before answering, “I-It’s after school.  I can take you there if you want.”

The bus arrived then, the muffled roar of the engine announcing its coming as it turned the corner onto the street the two of them sat on.  Sven looked around as they stood up to get on it.  “Wait, are you the only kid that gets on at this stop?”

“Well yeah, this is an all-human school, isn’t it?  I’m the only human child on the block.”

The double doors opened and Frisk stepped into the vehicle, Sven digesting what she said while waiting to step up behind her.  Frisked looked up at the driver at the top of the bus's steps and saw a familiar face.  Or rather, familiar skull.  "Sans?" Frisk asked incredulously.

"heya kid," Sans greeted her.  "fancy seein' you on my bus route.  how're ya doin'?"

Frisk was about to respond, asking him how he suddenly got a job driving a school bus, but then remembered she was holding up the bus by just standing there talking.

"it's alright, kid, go find a seat.  you all have a  _bus_ -y day ahead of you," he winked.  The kids sitting up in the front seats groaned, regretting their decision to sit up front.

It wasn’t until they found their seats and the bus started moving again that Sven put together the clues and figured out just who he had been talking to on the curb.

Chara counted the seconds until they could hear Sven start gossiping with other kids how they just talked to the girl who freed the monsters.   _I suggest we_ don't _trust him with any of our_ _secrets, if it comes to that._  Frisk just let out a small laugh and looked out the window at the passing scenery, letting the sight of the sun-lit neighborhood fill her with **Determination**.


	2. Bravery

 

The way to school was mostly uneventful, aside from the series of puns Sans would inflict on the students at each stop.

It was a strange thing, Frisk felt, that after only a couple days in the underground with monsters, being around humans again was almost a little foreign to her.  When the monsters reintroduced themselves to the surface world, the people that saw them ran away, at first.  Quickly, however, once the authorities got involved and the history books were opened up, the situation calmed down quite a bit, and word quickly spread throughout all of the surrounding towns.  It seemed that after a thousand years of being apart, neither civilization wanted a repeating of events and were quick to settle any legal viewpoint between humans and monsters.  And yet despite all the ensuing fanfare and celebrity-treatment Frisk received for a while, she still felt odd about being around her own kind again, as though _they_ were the strange creatures.

She couldn’t help but feel a little self-conscious about using the term ‘humans’ in her regular vocabulary now, as though they were some separate race from her own.  _Papyrus must have influenced you, calling you ‘HUMAN!’ all the time,_ Chara offered, mimicking Papyrus’s nasally yell.

 _Plus,_ Chara went on, _you weren’t down there for a mere couple of days.  With the resets, you technically experienced months of living down there.  And they were so friendly with you, that it’s only natural that you’d start seeing them as more familiar, and even more natural still to want to get a taste in MURDERING THEM._   Frisk’s imagination was suddenly filled with Chara’s melting, laughing face, and then with flashes of each of her friends, dead and disintegrated piles of dust, the underground cold, dark, and lifeless in her wake.  Frisk violently shook the images and memories away from her mind.

Chara laughed some more at her anguish and regret, while tears threatened to form in her eyes.  _Don’t take too kindly to my assistance, Frisk,_ Chara reminded.  _You still have to pay for your sins.  And soon, I might just find it quite suitable to take control again – possibly sooner than you think.  A school_ full _of people sounds like it could be a fun little foray._

Frisk was frozen in her seat with terror, she hadn’t even realized that they had arrived at the school’s lot and all of the other students had already stepped off the bus.

“kid?” Sans looked down at her from the middle aisle, concerned.  “you okay?”

Frisk quickly wiped her eyes with her shirtsleeve and cleared her throat.  “Yeah, I’m fine, just a little nervous about my first day,” she fibbed.

Sans eyed her expression carefully.  “well, if any of those other kids give you any trouble, lemme know.  they’ll soon find out they’re in for a bad time.”  Frisk flinched at those words, more of those memories attempting to bubble up.

“Y-yeah, I’ll be okay,” she tried to assure him, getting up from her seat.  “And don’t worry if I’m not on here after school, I should be at some club-thing.”

“okay, cool, maybe i’ll join ya.” Sans perpetually grinned, hopping back into the driver seat.

If Frisk hadn’t known him, she’d have questioned his abilities to drive a bus load of kids back home, meet her after school, _and_ no doubt have at least one of his infamous breaks in the interim.  Instead she just gave a smile and a wave, and stepped down the stair steps into the sea of students that flooded the school grounds.

Back on the bus, Sans watched her until she was fully devoured by the swarm of kids.  He then reached into his hoodie pocket and casually pulled out a small device no bigger than a watch.  Staring at its screen, his eyes grew dark in silent contemplation.

 

“Oh-em-gee, you are _not_ gonna believe this: My bus-driver is a _skeleton_ , like a _literal_ skeleton made of bones and stuff,” Frisk overheard a group of gossiping girls in passing as she made her way through the lanes of students walking on either side of the halls.

She stopped and looked around, taking in the sight of so many kids and teachers rushing to their classes or loitering along the sides chatting with each other about their vacation and friendships and other subjects of idle gossip.  Seeing the organized mob of youth diligently attending to or wishing to forget about their education filled her with…

Well, whatever she was feeling, it wasn’t determination.

Frisk found her posted class schedule and made her way to her homeroom, Chara’s threat and maniacal laughter still fresh on her mind.  She’d need to stay vigilant and keep her guard up.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

The first half of her day had gone without hitch.  Chara had been suspiciously quiet throughout her classes, though that might have just been due to the boring nature of them.  As lunch rolled around, however, she could feel something pressing on her mind, as though someone were poking the inside of her brain, testing its solidity.  She didn’t really know how, but she tried to keep herself locked into her body, not letting her guard down around Chara for an instant.  She flexed her fingers, wiggled her toes in her shoes, anything to keep up a feeling of total control over herself.

 _So defensive,_ came Chara’s sly voice.  _There’s no need to panic.  Not_ yet _, at least._   And then he was gone again, the poking-weight on her mind lifting once more.

Frisk walked around the cafeteria, listening to others’ passing conversations, looking for an open seat somewhere.  She noticed some kids were taking trays of food outside and decided a meal in the sun was what she was really craving.  Finding a free table over by a garden area, she sat down and took out her phone, accessing one of the dimensional boxes and pulling out a bagged lunch.

She ate her meal while looking out at everyone else also enjoying their lunches, chatting away and having good times.  She was about to grab her lunch and go mingle with some of the groups at other tables, but first she just wanted to take in her surroundings and let them fill her with the feeling of—

“Hey, Frisk!”  Her thoughts were interrupted by Sven’s voice.  He ran over and sat down next to her, sloshing some of his drink onto his food tray on the way.

“Hiya Sven,” she greeted warmly, glad to have some familiar company after the events of that morning, even if she had just met him that day.  “Is the club still meeting after school?”

Sven shushed her melodramatically, causing a couple other kids from nearby tables to turn around.  “Yes,” he whispered, “But it’s a secret!  You can’t tell anyone about it!”

“Even though you told me,” she smiled.

He shrugged.  “Yeah, well, you looked like you could keep a secret.  Besides, as the one who single-handedly brought all the monsters back, you’d definitely qualify for getting in.”

Frisk thought back on her adventures underground.  “It wasn’t ‘single-handedly,’ I had help from friends.”

“Yeah but you were the only human, right?  It was just you and a bunch of monsters.  If it was me, I dunno what I’d do.  I’d probably scream and maybe end up fighting ‘em all.”

“Ha, like you’d hurt a fly,” replied a gruff sounding voice from behind them.

“Oh…” Sven deadpanned.  “hey, Dustan.”

The larger boy named Dustan thumped down onto the bench on the other side of Sven.  “Who’re you?” Frisk asked.

Dustan shook hands with Frisk across Sven’s lunch, repeating his name for her.  “And you’re the chick who freed the monsters, right?  Man, you shouldn’t’ve done that, it’s not like us people had any shortage of problems without those freaks poking their heads around.”

“Dustan,” Sven looked at him with a serious tone.

“One of those ‘freaks’ happens to be my mom,” Frisk countered, taking Dustan’s bait.

“Yeah, so?”

“ _Dustan,_ ” Sven warned , “This isn’t the place for that.”

“I think it’s exactly the place for this,” Dustan rumbled, getting up and standing in front of Frisk, who too was getting up from her seat.  “If you spent all that time down there with those beasts, you probably know how to fight.”

“You’re gonna get us in trouble, man!” Sven called out.

“Not before I give this monster-lover a piece of my mind!”

Frisk calmly looked down, finding a decently angled stick lying on the ground.  “You wanna go?” she questioned, picking up the low-ATK weapon.  “Alright, show me what you—.”  Frisk got knocked into the air and landed over in a patch of grass, Dustan having charged into her head-on.

Kids were quickly gathering around to witness the fight.  Frisk was more disoriented than in any pain.  She looked back up at her attacker to notice his chest was glowing a faint orange hue.  And he was rushing toward her again with alarming speed.

She quickly rolled out of the way, having to resort to defensive maneuvers since her stick got flung out of her hands.  She could hear Sven calling something out over the cacophony of spectating students, but her head was spinning too fast to make out what he was saying.

 _My, my, what have we gotten ourselves into?_ Chara antagonized.  _Maybe you would like some help, Frisk?  I think_ I _would be of a suitable strength to take down this schoolyard bully._

Frisk got up from the ground and dived out of the way from Dustan’s next charge.  He stopped short and chased after her, throwing punches that had that same faint orange glow emanating off of them.

 _He’s gaining on you, Frisk.  Why don’t I just…_ Chara’s projected hand started pressing into Frisk’s body, and she could feel herself begin to lose control of her legs.

Just as Dustan got close enough to grab at her, however, something popped up from the ground and caused him to suddenly trip and face-plant into the dirt.  Chara stopped and looked to see what happened, allowing Frisk to spin around toward her fallen pursuer, noticing the thick pale-green root that had hooked itself around his foot.

“Howdy!” a small, shrill voiced flower spoke while the root proceeded to wrap itself around Dustan’s ankle and rise up to lift him into the air.  “Didn’t your parents ever teach you it’s not nice to hit people?” Flowey heckled.

Frisk’s mouth was agape: “A-Asriel?”

Flowey turned his attention to Frisk.  “Do I _look_ like that wimpy crybaby to you, you idiot?”  He then dropped Dustan, his gaze looking past Frisk.

Several members of the school’s faculty were standing behind her, prepared to break up the fight had it not already been defused.  Frisk looked back to where Flowey was, only to find a small hole in the ground where he had previously sprouted.  Neither Toriel or Sans were going to like this.

Both Frisk and Dustan were sent to the school’s offices, where they were reprimanded for their behavior and given appropriate punishments for fighting.  Once they were released to go return to the remainder of their classes, Dustan turned toward Frisk while walking away. “Next time, kid,” he warned, then turned and stomped down the hall.

Frisk did a mental check to see if Chara was still there, but it seemed as though they had gone silent again.  She kept herself alert in case they suddenly came back, and headed off to her next class.

At the end of the school day, Frisk found that she shared her final class with Sven, where afterward the two of them began to head toward where the ‘secret club’ met while the other students eagerly strode off toward the buses and parking lot to their awaiting guardians.

Sven jumped in surprise when he looked over at Frisk and suddenly saw their skeletal bus-driver walking beside her.  “hey kiddos,” Sans waved.

“Uh, yeah, hey,” Sven timidly waved back.  "Aren't you supposed to be driving the bus?"

Sans shook his head.  "already got 'em all home."

"In the five minutes school's been out?"

"Don't worry about it," Frisk answered.  "Sans has his ways."

Frisk was thankful that she had been able to clean herself up from after her lunch encounter.  She didn’t want to upset Sans by telling him she got into a fight with another student.  _Don’t look now,_ Chara spoke up again, directing Frisk’s attention down the hallway they were headed in.  Dustan was walking toward them, clearly not happy to see Frisk.

“Aha, I see you brought another one of your monster-friends,” Dustan called out.  “You got me once with that plant thing, but you’re not gonna… gonna…”  He lost his train of thought as he took in the sight of Sans.

“sup,” Sans grinned back.  “frisk, is this guy botherin’ ya?”

Dustan scowled, but stood his ground nonetheless.  Sven groaned and got between the two parties.  “We’re all heading to the same place, you guys.  Knock it off and let’s just go.”

After another few seconds of stare-down between Frisk, Sans and Dustan, they all slowly agreed to walk together, heading for a large set of elevator doors.

“The basement levels are only used by faculty and club members,” Sven explained as they got inside and started going down.  “There’s an entrance in there to go deeper underground where the club meets.”

“so what’s this club of yours called?” Sans asked.

“What do you mean?”

“every secret club’s gotta have a cool name.  so what’s this one’s?”

“Oh um,” Sven was hesitant to say it.  “it’s ‘COUGH’.”

Frisk blinked.  Sans stared.  Dustan actually coughed.  “’cough’?” Sans repeated back.  “that’s the name of it?  hey, I ain’t judgin’, but—.”

“It’s an acronym,” Dustan stated blandly.  “It stands for ‘Coalition of Upper Gifted Humans’.”

“Yeah, that,” Sven agreed.  “It’s a large group of kids from all over that can do some really cool things with like super-powers and stuff!”

The elevator doors opened, letting the four of them out into a small basement corridor that housed lots of pipes and wires leading up to the various school rooms above.  Another set of heftier-looking elevator doors awaited for them to pass through, partially obscured along one of the side walls.

“And they all meet down here?” Frisk wondered, stepping into the more industrial-looking chamber.

“Nah, this just goes to one end of the facility,” said Dustan.  “There’s tunnels and tracks spreading all over the place."

“how far down we goin’?” Sans looked somewhat concerned.

“I dunno, why?” Sven shrugged.

“just got a feelin’,” Sans described while he stuffed his hands into his hoodie pockets, “i didn’t realize how much i hated being underground until now.”  Frisk patted him comfortingly on the arm.

Dustan smirked.  He thought about how far down they must be going.  His chest began to very faintly glow a soft, muted orange again as the idea of being trapped below miles of dirt and rock with no obvious way out filled him with a sense of **Bravery.**


	3. Justice

 

“So why ‘Upper Gifted’?” Frisked asked as the elevator came to a halt, the doors slowly opening into a large, well-lit chamber, “Is this some kind of group of rich, upper-crust kids or…?”  She trailed off when Dustan snorted at her question and sidled past them all, walking with greater purpose into the bright facility.

The three of them were left behind, Frisk and Sans slowly absorbing their surroundings.  The room itself looked as though it could be some form of reception, though currently it was unoccupied.  The only signs of activity were a couple conspicuous cameras following their movements.  The foyer they were in split off into a long hallway at the back, extending to either side.

Sven made a face of slight embarrassment before confessing.  “To be really honest, I’ve only been part of COUGH for a few weeks.  They gave me the glove I showed you before because they saw I had potential, but no one’s actually explained to me what it all means really.”  He smiled awkwardly.  “I- I can still show you around, though!  Follow me.”

Sven took the two of them down several hallways, passing through many gateways that looked like they could withstand powerful blasts.  There were several rooms he showed them that were designated bedrooms, with rows of bunkbeds lined up in alternating formations.  A couple of kids Frisk had seen around the school were sitting on the beds, stopping their conversations to watch the new faces.  Sans especially made them grow wide eyed and start whispering to each other more earnestly.

“Do people live down here?” Frisk wondered.

“A few do,” Sven answered, “Mostly this is all here just in case something bad happens that traps us all down here.  Not that that’s ever likely to happen,” he added quickly, seeing Frisk and Sans exchanged a worried look.

The two were led out into another, wider hallway that overlooked a large auditorium on one side.  The markings on the floor in the arena told of a wide variety of activities that would take place there, with scuffs, dents, and the occasional blast mark adding to the number of possible uses the open space would provide.  “This is one of the training rooms,” Sven explained.  “I’ve only been in there twice, and both times were just practice in extending a strong force of magic out into the open.  But I’ve seen more skilled people getting trained in all kinds of stuff: hand-to-hand battles, dodging bullets, lifting immovable objects, you name it.”

“i get it,” Sans nodded, “you kids are down here exercisin’ your soul’s capacity, getting’ book-smart up on the surface, and comin’ down here to get soul-smart.  i take back what i might’ve said about this club, kid, this looks pretty cool.”

“Glad to hear you like it,” a commanding and rich voiced man said, approaching them.  “Down here we’re doing our best to test the limits of soul-power, and raise humans to even greater heights than our technology has gotten us so far.”  He extended a hand to Sans.  “Doug Black,” he greeted.  “And despite the name of our group, monsters are definitely welcome.”

“th’ name’s sans,” Sans returned the greeting.  “and this is frisk.”

“Oh yes,” Doug shook her hand, “I’ve heard quite a bit about your tales in the underground, little miss.  If what they say is true, I think you’ll fit right in here in our organization.”

“I hope it’s not a problem that I was told about this place,” Frisk said apologetically, looking to Sven, “since it’s supposed to be a secret.”

Doug gave a singular, quick laugh and clapped his hands together.  “No, no, this isn’t _that_ kind of organization,” he said, patting Sven on the back.  “What we do here is no strict secret, though in the eyes of the public it could be seen as a little foreign at first.  No, we just admonish our trainees to have a sense of judgement and not to go boasting to the whole world what little they might’ve learned about their abilities.”

“Oh,” Sven realized.  “I thought—Sorry, sir, I just thought you didn’t want anyone to tell anybody else about this place.”

“No, Sven,” he chuckled, “just you, really.  Your tendency to want to appear cool from others’ perspectives is all we were safe-guarding against.”

Sven blushed slightly before nodding.  He hesitated before turning back to Frisk and Sans.  “Well uh, I actually should get going.  Mr. Black can show you around and answer your questions better than I could anyway.”  And with that, Sven hurried off down the corridor, disappearing past a corner to another hall.

“ _Did_ you have any questions you’d like me to answer?” Doug warmly invited, gesturing for them to walk with him.

“I had a question about the name,” Frisk told him.  She repeated her question before about the phrase ‘Upper Gifted Humans’.

Doug thought in silence for a few seconds while they followed him down toward some offices.  “Well, how about to start answering that, you tell me what you know about the nature of souls.”

“it’s th’ culmination of being,” Sans replied, “the source of a person’s power and what makes someone truly alive.”

Doug smiled.  “Sans, you give me the impression of someone who knows much more than they ever intend to let on.  Do you have a job currently?”  Sans replied that he had many, and that he was on break with one as they spoke.  Doug laughed at the idea, and though Frisk smiled too, she knew it wasn’t much of an exaggeration.

Doug offered Sans a card from his pocket.  “If you feel like you can fit one more in with your schedule, something tells me we could use a mind like yours.”

Sans was caught completely off guard, though he tried not to show it.  “th-thanks,” he replied, looking over the business card and prospective job offer.  He was silent for a few moments longer, and then looked back up to Doug and Frisk.  “hey, kid, i should be gettin’ back.  gimme a call if you need anything, k?  i’ll be around to pick you up.”  Frisk nodded and waved him goodbye, knowing he’d already be gone by the time she turned back around to Mr. Black.

She wasn’t sure why, but she felt like she belonged here, that this was a good place to be.  Doug looked back at her, slowing his walking pace for her to catch up to his side.  “How do you feel right now?” he questioned.

“Great,” was her immediate response, recognizing the feeling as the same sort of power and clarity she often felt when surrounded by her friends.

“Good,” he smiled.  “That feeling is your soul gathering together large amounts of a substance we call ‘UPPER’,” Doug continued.  “UPPER is another acronym, which stands for Universally Present Permeating Ethereal Resource.  It’s the most basic substance that fills, connects, and makes everything, including your very soul.  And in action, it’s the force that makes magic possible, and makes seemingly impossible feats become reality.”

He led Frisk through a regular-looking, windowed wooden door, into a somewhat small, unassuming office, which was a sharp change in scenery from the rest of the facility’s blast doors and wide-open, brightly lit chambers.  Doug pulled up a chair in front of the desk and went to go sit behind it.  “So ‘Upper Gifted Humans’ means, human kids who have a strong connection with this ‘UPPER’ stuff?” Frisk made sure she understood.

“Precisely,” Doug nodded, pulling out several typed-up registration forms.  “And not just kids, I myself and many other grown-ups are part of the program, training and getting trained in the practice of magic, honing the forces of one’s soul according to its type and measure of LV.”

Frisk’s breathing caught in her own throat at his mention of LV.  “LV?” she repeated.  “You mean Level of Violence?”

“Yes,” he said, somewhat surprised before remembering something.  “You might have had this already explained to you, but LV, sometimes called ‘LOVE,’ is a soul’s capacity to emotionally detach itself from its surroundings.  In a raw, unconditioned sense, this can be dangerous and lead to, literally, _soulless_ actions being taken.  However, with sufficient training and practice, proper and healthy LV can be a force for good, where rather than merely casting aside emotion and feeling, one instead learns to get a better handle on them as the tools they’re meant to be, using their own emotions and the impressions and feelings of others to an advantage in any situation.”

Frisk remembered what it felt like having so much EXP within her, her LV reaching a point where it would keep endlessly growing, until… She quickly pushed those memories away before her emotions got the better of her.  Curiously, throughout all of this, Chara had been eerily silent.  She internally shuddered at the image of his cackling, dripping face in her mind, bringing herself back to reality.

She looked up and found Mr. Black staring straight into her eyes, genuine concern marked all over his face, as though he were privy to the struggles within her head.  He said nothing, and after a few moments went back to sorting through and preparing papers and forms while continuing his explanations.  “As I was saying, this program was made for honing one’s soul, according to its Level of Violence – which here means a deliberate use of force for _good_ intentions – and according to its type.  And every soul has an individual categorized type – humans have eight kinds they can be.”

“So what type of soul would I have?” Frisk eagerly asked.

Doug jogged the collected stack of papers against the desk, stapling them together and handing them to Frisk.  “We’ll find out soon enough.  If you’d like to join, that is.  Read through that packet there, and if you want an intro exam, come back tomorrow and we’ll set you up.”

Frisk was guided out of his office back toward the elevator to the surface.  She continued asking questions about the various rooms they passed through, which led to detour after detour, Doug giving her a thorough tour of the grounds.  Eventually they finally made it to the empty reception desk and the elevator she had entered through, where he stood smiling pleasantly while the heavy doors closed behind her.

Making her way back up out of the school’s basement and out into the front lot, she called up Sans, who immediately picked up, saying he was already on his way with Papyrus.  Waiting for them to show up, she called Toriel, who had no clue as to the day’s events.  Frisk hadn’t been down in COUGH for long, but her mother’s concern was still there, worried something might have happened that caused Frisk not to walk in the door after the bus had passed their street.  It had been a long day, and she had a lot to think about, explaining it all to Toriel.  Her mom was nothing but supportive, though wanted to look over the paperwork herself to make sure nothing was amiss.  After hanging up the phone, Frisk saw Papyrus’s car coming down the main road, and while she waited for him to pull all the way up to where she stood, Chara’s voice sounded in her mind.

 _Have a good night’s rest, Frisk.  I won’t attempt to take control of your body again any time soon._   The way he sounded in her head, he too seemed to be in deep thought from the things they both had seen.

Frisk stepped into the vehicle, Papyrus making sure she was buckled in before starting up again.  “SAFTEY FIRST, HUMAN!” he cried, and then to punctuate his declaration, floored the gas pedal, screeching the tires on the asphalt and zooming back out onto the main road.  Frisk clung to her seat belt for life as they lurched forward, though comforted by Sans’s permanently smiling face unfazed by his brother’s hasty driving.  She looked back out toward the school as they drove away, and for a brief moment thought she saw a lone yellow flower poke its head up out of the ground, watching for where they were headed.  When she blinked, however, the flower was already gone.

Back home, she asked Sans if he wanted to visit with Toriel at all, but he reluctantly declined.  As much as he enjoyed his pun and joke sessions with Toriel, he for once had more pressing duties that prevented him from meeting with friends.  They drove away, waving all the way, leaving Frisk standing in front of the house, waving back until she was waving at an empty street.  She turned around and stepped up inside, where Toriel was already waiting in the front entry.

They talked about their respective school days – Toriel’s elementary class for the young monsters had gone wonderfully, and she was proud to say her students all seemed eager to tackle their assigned homework.  Frisk repeated the more crucial points to her day (though glossing over very briefly her lunchtime scuffle), finishing with what she learned about the COUGH organization.

She and Toriel read over the packet Mr. Black had given her together, Toriel particularly interested in the safety policies of the group.  Given the adventures they had all taken part in, and recognizing Frisk’s desire to go, she went ahead and filled out and signed the bundle of pages as the young girl’s guardian.

Later that evening, Frisk sorted through her mind, feeling out Chara’s presence.  He was there, but silent, and gave off an impression of being completely docile.  With his promise in mind, she carefully let herself drift off to sleep, ready to fight back should she find her mind thrust out of body again.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

The next morning, Frisk awoke to hear something hit her window.  Looking around, she couldn’t see any mental image of Chara, only feeling his constant presence while he hid in his silent state.  Clad in blue and purple striped pajamas, she shuffled over to the window to discover the source of the occasional tapping noise.  Looking outside, she at first didn’t see anyone, but was then alerted to look down by another pebble bouncing off the glass.  Below the window, Flowey the flower impatiently flicked stones up into the pane with one of his roots.

Quickly getting dressed and throwing on her shoes, Frisk sped outside to where she was met by the smiling face of the living golden flower.  “Morning!” he said in his overly-chipper tone.  “I was wondering when you’d finally wake up.”

“Asriel,” Frisk breathed, partially out of surprise and somewhat out of having ran through the house so quickly.

“There’s that name again,” Flowey mocked, “I bet you really miss that stupid little weakling, huh?”

Frisk’s attention pulled away for a second as she noticed Chara’s visage appear beside her, staring with a grim expression toward the flower.  He didn’t say anything, but his attitude toward Flowey had been made clear before: Just another incompetent creature that had been in his way.

Flowey noticed Frisk’s focus was off.  “Hey, what gives?  If I know you, a remark like that would’ve gotten me a glare at least!  What, you got something more important on your mind than your _best friend?_ ”

 _You’re not_ her _best friend,_ Chara growled.  Normally Frisk would have shrugged off the lapse in interest and at most tell the questioning party a little white-lie about her ‘imaginary friend.’  However, such comments would not go over well with Flowey, so she instead just remained silent.

After a few more seconds of Flowey eyeing her for a response, his expression deflated into a more defeated one.  “Alright, anyway, I guess I just wanted to find you and apologize, at least as much as I’m capable of doing.  Still can’t feel a thing without an actual soul, but since you know the truth of my past, I guess I can put in an effort toward being nice.”

Frisk was genuinely surprised, kneeling down to get closer to his level.  She would have hugged the being she still knew to be Asriel, if he had more of a body to hug.  Instead she simply expressed her thanks.  Flowey squirmed a little uncomfortably.

“Yeah well, you’ve gotten the better of me twice now.  And I don’t know what you did, but I still can’t reach my own saves.  So unless you wanna reset, I’m just gonna have to live with that shame.” He gave a sly smile.  “And you know, my old philosophy still applies, even more so now that you’ve brought monsters and humans together again.  I wouldn’t blame you if you _did_ reset it all, take us all back to the underground.  Maybe take Toriel’s offer and stay with her down in the ruins.”  His face changed to that of a more taunting one.  “Or maybe get to feel the thrill of knocking her out of your way and killing her again,” he giggled.

Frisk was shocked.  “You remember that?”

Flowey looked at her with his usual ‘you idiot’ face.  “Well duh, that was your first run, moron.”

Frisk’s concentration was pulled away again as the memories began coming back, partially aided by Chara’s influence.  Frisk’s emotions were overcome with guilt, her hands clutching at her head while her eyes welled up again.

“Whoa!” Flowey exclaimed, “That’s the first time I’ve seen you get so upset about killing someone!”  He was going to continue making fun, but remembered how he told her he’d do better about being nice.  He was honesty curious now, though.  In all of the loads and resets of hers he had lived through, the largest reaction he’d get from mentioning Frisk’s infrequent kills was a cold stare, the shine of pure determination flaming behind her eyes.  But now, it was like all of those times were catching up to her.  “H-hey,” he began to sooth, clearly being fairly rusty at the practice.  “Don’t worry about it, it’s not like any of them are dead _now,_ right?  Besides, that first time was in complete ignorance.  It’s not like you’d actually gone out of your way to kill them all out of boredom like me!” He laughed in a self-mocking manner.  But then he noticed Frisk’s shaking had only gotten stronger.  After a minute a horrifying thought occurred to him, but he quickly tried to dismiss it as a completely idiotic notion.  Unless…

“Frisk,” he warily started, “when I was fighting against you this last time, I called you by a different name.  Despite that, though, you looked as though you recognized the name anyway.”  He talked like someone walking on thin ice.  He hesitated, but then repeated the name.  “Chara?”

Frisk’s shaking immediately stopped.  Her head rose, an eerie smile plastered onto its surface, her eyes still red from tears.  “Hello, _Flowey_.” Chara spoke, bordering on seething.  “Just like Dad, you’re just as terrible at naming as he is.”

Frisk was frozen in shock from Chara’s soul effortlessly pushing through the influence of her own, taking control of her speech.  _I did promise I would not attempt to take control of your_ body _as a whole,_ Chara reasoned.  _Forgive me; sharing was never my strong suit._   He then relinquished control back over to Frisk, who now being in control of her own face again, reflected Flowey’s own terrified expression.

Flowey was speechless.  His terror slowly melted away into actual concern, a first for him since an innumerably long time ago.  “What. Were you _thinking._ You _IDIOT!?_ ” he slowly spat in genuine disappointment.

Frisk had no answer.  She would never have an answer.  She only wanted to forget that it had ever happened and live peacefully with her friends.  But the consequences of her actions transcended the power of any reset.  Chara now threatened everyone with his very existence, and she was to blame.

The silence between them only grew, until Flowey finally sprouted two thin leaves and shrugged them like shoulders.  “Alright, there’s no point in dwelling on what isn’t anymore.  This is where we’re at now, might as well make what you can from it.  I’m honestly surprised Chara hasn’t just taken over already.”

“He has,” Frisk admitted, her shakes slowly returning.  “A few times now, but I’ve been able to keep him at bay for the most part.  It’s not easy, but he doesn’t seem to want to just get it over with.  It’s like he’s enjoying my misery.”

“Oh, now that makes sense.  Chara was always a sadistic jerk when we were kids.  We only got along because I’d end up helping him out with his schemes, and he’d always have my back if we got in trouble,” Flowey reminisced.  “But I also know if something stops being useful or fun for him, that’s when he goes the easier route and inflicts pain by himself.  It’s not as fun that way, I should know, but it’s what he ultimately wants.”

 _Tell him that he is bound to keeping my existence a secret if he does not wish to end up mulch,_ Chara said, allowing Frisk to keep control over her own voice.  Frisk relayed the message, though softening the threat a little.

“Don’t worry about me,” Flowey calmly replied, “We’re all killers now.”  He started shifting his roots to burrow back into the ground.  “I’ll be around, Frisk.”

Frisk sorrowfully acknowledged Flowey’s statement.  _Kill or be killed,_ Chara reminded.

Doing her best to do as Flowey suggested, to make the best of the situation they were in now, she tried to lift her spirits some.  “Thanks, Asri—er, Flowey,” she corrected herself.

Flowey gave her a pitiful look.  “That kid’s gone,” he said, trying to be comforting with the facts.  “I’m not him; I’m stronger than he would’ve been.  But, even if his soul is gone, I still remember how I used to be like him.  Trust me,” he advised, “even if you two had some sweet moments in that cave, you wouldn’t have liked him.  He was a real whiner.  Chara can vouch for that.”

 _It’s true,_ Chara agreed.

“Anyway,” Flowey waved off his attempts at kindness, “see you later… killer.”  Even though he said it in an oddly endearing way, the term stabbed at Frisk’s heart.   He then plunged into the ground, a small hole in the dirt the only evidence he had been there.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

The school day came and went as Frisk pushed the morning’s emotional whirlwind out of mind, eager to return to the COUGH facility.  Sans had picked her up on the bus like normal, the students who had to sit up front his newest prey for unleashing his jokes on.  Sven had saved her a seat and talked with her excitedly about COUGH and all the cool things she’d get to see, which only made her more determined to get back down there.  Her classes were the same as the day before, aside from Chara now popping up during class assignments to give Frisk assistance every now and then.  She was still fairly young, so he was slightly impressed with how much she understood, chalking it up to her determination as with many other things.

At lunch, Frisk sat outside again at the same table, Sven finding her and discussing Dustan with her.  “He’s ranked number five in the overall scoreboard for the whole club,” Sven told her.  “He’s a hothead and a bully who’ll take any chance he can get to start up a fight.  He only respects someone if they can hold their own in battle against him.”

“That’s not true,” Dustan refuted as he plopped down across the table, with his own tray of food this time.  “ _Respect_ is for anyone who _wants_ to fight me.”  He grinned smugly at Frisk.  “If they can hold me off in a fight, I’ll start _praying_ to ‘em.”  He took a contented bite of his food, staring at Frisk.  “So are you gonna join up?”  Frisk nodded, perhaps a little too eagerly.

“Good, it’ll be nice to hit on some new meat in the ring.  Don’t get in trouble for brawlin’ there,” Dustan added.

“Don’t you mean, ‘take on’ some new meat?” Sven asked.  He was ignored.

Lunch ended without incident, and the remainder of her classes were simple enough that Chara kept quiet.  After school, Frisk and Sven met up with Dustan in front of the elevator.  “No sign of your monster friend today,” Dustan teasingly remarked.  Frisk idly shook her head, not even looking at him.

Down at the COUGH facility, the two boys went their ways to their individual affairs.  Frisk was stopped at the previously empty reception desk, its seat now filled.

“Mr. Black has been expecting you,” the deployed receptionist stated with grace.  “Do you have the paperwork he left with you?”

She provided the read and signed papers from her phone’s inventory, and was told to head down to Arena Three, where Mr. Black would meet her.  Following the directions in navigating the halls, Frisk found herself entering through some noticeably thicker blast doors, into a large auditorium similar to the one she saw the previous day.

Doug was flanked on his sides with several other adults, some in lab coats, many with clipboards and other note-taking devices in their hands.  “Okay,” he spoke proudly, “Are you ready for your exam?”

Frisk nodded, asking what it entailed.

“The purpose of this exam is to see what kind of abilities you possess.  It’s clear you have abilities of some form, going off of the stories of your adventure with the monsters.  Here it will be determined what soul-type you have, and how best to strengthen your soul’s power in coming lessons.”

A taller young man with brown, wavy hair strode toward her from the blast doors on the other side of the arena.  “Meet Barr.  He’s agreed to spar against you today,” introduced Doug.

Barr was a fairly stoic figure, preferring things to be straightforward and direct.  “I’m ranked number three in the coalition’s scoring system.  I’ll go easy on you, since it’s your first time.”

“Would either of you like to use a weapon?” one of the adults asked.  Barr shook his head, cracking his knuckles.  Frisk stared him down, doing the same.

Doug and his assistants exited out the chamber, reappearing up above along the railings in the spectating hall.  A gong sounded, signaling the fight to start.

Barr took a deep breath, keeping his eyes on Frisk.  His chest started to glow a soft yellow as he spoke to Frisk.  “Do you know how to draw on your soul’s power?”

Frisk recalled on her past experiences in the underground, remembering that whenever a monster approached, her soul lit up and manifested in her chest.  She never really knew how or why it happened, but used the feeling of control it gave her all the same.  She shook her head at Barr.

Barr nodded softly.  “Think about what makes you the happiest out of everything.  Feel out why it gives you happiness, and let that feeling swell inside you.”  Frisk started thinking about the monsters she met and all the qualities they expressed.  She thought about why they made her feel good, and found that through meeting them all, saving them, fighting them, freeing them, they all filled her with…

Her chest bloomed with a deep red glow, and instantly the staff above took furious notes on every detail they could about Frisk.  Barr waited a second longer, taking note of his opponent.  He then nodded, getting into a fighting stance.  Frisk could feel the ethereal substance flow through her being, ready to fight.

Barr slowly raised his hand, making a finger gun toward her.  His hand began to glow yellow.  “Dodge,” he called out.  A spray of yellow pellets shot out from his extended finger.

Frisk didn’t even have time to flinch.

She suddenly found herself on her back, looking up at the bright lights on the ceiling.  She heard running, some people yelling out with urgent tones.  She heard the word “infirmary,” and then saw Barr kneeling next to her, his face hard as rock, and his eyes full of apologies.

“I should have made it easier,” she heard him say, while her vision grew dark.

She could feel herself get lifted up off the floor, and thought she saw in her mind’s eye Chara wrapping his arms around her protectively.

 

Barr hastily strode to the medical center of the facility behind the group that was rushing Frisk there.  He had done what was asked of him, and could feel no guilt on his shoulders.  Strangely, he could sense a dark vibe oozing off of Frisk’s person when her soul lit up in the ring.  The light her soul gave off almost looked like the combined force of two souls.  Except that half of her soul seemed typical for a Determination-class, and the other half just appeared to be broken and decayed.

He felt out how powerful his attacks had been, and made sure the magical bullets should have, at most, merely given her a mild stinging sensation upon impact.  Instead, the force of just one blasted her back against the wall, the nature of his own soul type causing a violent reaction to hers that was not normal.  The strangest part about all of it was that, while the events that transpired made him feel sorry for Frisk, they gave him a feeling best described as **Justice.**


	4. Kindness

 

At first, Frisk thought she was dreaming.  Then she thought it was a nightmare.  Both assumptions were proven wrong when she saw her body lying on a bed in what looked like a hospital ward.  The steady beeping of monitors and other equipment strapped to her body dispelled any ideas relating to her mortality, which could then only mean one thing, one thing worse than death itself.

_No, no, I haven’t taken over, I’m not in there, see?_ Chara’s form approached hers, both of them on the same mental plane.  _I only pulled you out to talk with you for a moment while your body rests._

Frisk didn’t want to speak with him.  In her mind, she had more and more fully acknowledged his presence and the advice he gave over time, but she never had made any direct thoughts or even spoken out loud toward him.  Barring the concerning image of talking to herself, even with the ‘imaginary friend’ reasoning, she didn’t want to give Chara any leeway into her head more than he already had.  She knew that if she let him get too close in any sense, he would eventually have leverage to force control.

_That only borders on the truth,_ Chara refuted. _The fact remains, I can take control anytime I want.  I choose not to for a myriad of reasons.  Some of those reasons happen to be of a crueler nature, it is true, but others are of a more understanding quality.  This place intrigues me as much as it does you – if I took over and began my slaughter now, I might never learn the methods this place has found for making one’s soul even stronger.  Besides, I can still hear your thoughts, whether you direct them at me or not._

She remained silent, while the two of them just looked at each other.  Chara smiled his iconic empty smile at her, understanding her enmity toward him. _I suppose I only wanted to tell you while we were on equal terms that I will not take control of any part of your body, nor your body as a whole, without your permission from now on.  Your fear has been… fun, to a degree, but it has become stale at this point.  Your memories of your killing-spree are painful – at best – for you, and I will do what I can to manage them so they won’t bother you any longer.  As long as your soul is bound to mine, we might as well begin working together, no?_

That took her by surprise.  She had become accustomed to the Chara that only wanted to watch her suffer, expecting the time when he would grow bored of her misery and spread to inflicting pain, anguish, and eventually death on others.  But instead, he was offering a truce as a result of his growing bored.  Frisk tried to think to herself as privately as possible what he might be working toward.  Was he only trying to gain her trust to overthrow her when she least expected it?  Or perhaps he thought he could squeeze more sorrow and fear from her by acting friendly while still hinting at the possibility of turning on her?

Chara closed his eyes with a slightly annoyed, though patient, smile.  _You truly overestimate yourself.  If I wanted more pain and crying out of you, I would grind the very substance of your mind to madness – which would ultimately profit me an unsatisfactory end.  If I wanted to overpower you at any time, I could easily do so, as you have seen.  That again, however, would profit me little.  Trust me or do not, it doesn’t matter here.  Just know that I am who I always have been, and that now I promise I will not even attempt to take control without you wanting me to do so first._

Frisk remained still, completely unsure how to respond.  After another few moments of awkward silence, Chara began to laugh softly.  He then gestured toward Frisk’s body, and suddenly everything turned a bleary, fleshy red.  It took a moment before she realized she was staring into her closed eyelids, her mind awake and alert.

Frisk opened her eyes and found herself in the hospital ward she had just seen, sitting up suddenly.  In her mind she could see Chara standing exactly where he had been in her one-sided conversation with him, where he kept smiling hollowly and waved a hand at her.  A girl only a year or two older than Frisk came striding up, wearing a uniform that bore typical markings for a nurse, or maybe a nurse in training, and a green insignia with the letters KD inscribed within.

“Oh good, you’re awake,” the girl tenderly spoke, moving to assist with Frisk’s bandages and the machines that measured her status.  “You came in pretty hurt for getting flung into a wall, but thankfully we got you mostly patched up.”  She sat down next to Frisk on the next bed over.  “My name’s Adeline, and I think everyone knows who you are, Frisk.  Do you remember much about what happened?”

Frisk blinked and slowly looked around.  “How long was I asleep?” she tentatively asked.

“Only a few hours,” Adeline reassured.  “Most of the damage was easy to fix, though to be sure you’re okay, try to remember as much as you can about what happened.”

Frisk nodded and thought back on her fight against Barr, how he had taught her to power up her soul, then told her to dodge something, and a yellow blur came out of his hand at her, hitting her shoulder.  Then all she could remember was looking up at the ceiling while her entire back felt numb and tingly.  She remembered that Barr knelt next to her, saying something about how he should have made his attack easier.  She evoked all of this to the young nurse trying to think if there had been anything else.  She then remembered one last thing with Chara before she blacked out, how while she was being carried, he had stood over her, his arms wrapping around her.  She looked over to where Chara’s image was, unsure what to think of that gesture, and he simply beamed back, a little more substance behind his smile this time.

“Barr must’ve forgotten to hold back some of his strength on a new DT like you,” she sighed, shaking her head.  “I bet you don’t even know what you’re capable of, do you?”  She got up, walking over to a counter with various supplies.

“A new DT like me?” Frisk repeated, asking what the letters stood for.

A new voice responded, coming from the doorway.  “DTs are what we call Determination-class souls like yourself.”

“Oh!” exclaimed Adeline, “Frisk, let me introduce you to my brother, Ern.  He’s a Determination-class soul like you, too.”

A black haired, older boy around the same age as Adeline entered the room, striding tall like a man of age and wisdom beyond his years.  “Head of the class, as far as DTs go,” he grinned.  “Number eight in the rankings.  I wanted to come by and see our newest member, giving us DTs a _good name_ by getting thrashed by a Justice like that.”

Before Frisk could properly respond, Ern started laughing, waving a hand at her concerned expression.  “I’m just messing around, newbie, Barr’s got the number three spot for a reason, don’t take it too bad.”

“There’s just a few things left to do,” Adeline addressed Frisk, walking over to her side again.  She put her hand over the bandage on Frisk’s shoulder, causing Frisk to wince at the stinging pain.  “Shooting you against a wall wasn’t the only thing Barr did, his shot also caused a fairly deep burn into your skin.”  Her hand then started glowing a warm green, and the sting on Frisk’s shoulder steadily subsided.

Adeline noticed Frisk’s amazed gaze toward the glow.  “I’m a KD,” she said, gesturing to the green symbol on her uniform that stated as such, “which is our shortened name for Kindness-class souls.”

“KDs are healers,” Ern further explained.  “Every soul-type has a basic power, which you’ve seen firsthand.  Do you know what UPPER is?”

Frisk nodded.  “It’s the most basic substance is what I was told.”

“It’s the most fundamental, foundational particle that exists: it’s the thing that makes existence a reality in the first place,” he agreed, further expounding on the concept.  “Kindness souls, like Ady here and others, use the UPPER toward restructuring purposes, using it to restore something to its proper place.  If you remove that bandage, I bet there won’t be any sign of a wound ever being there in the first place.”

Adeline was already doing just that, unwinding the wrappings until Frisk could get a look at her shoulder.  Perfectly smooth skin with no recollection of having felt any pain was revealed, Adeline smiling at her handiwork.

“Barr is a Justice-class soul,” Ern went on, “where his powers are toward directly weaponizing the UPPER.  For most Justices, it usually comes out as some form of bullets or other, with the intent of ripping right through any material it comes into contact with.”

“Well at least he was holding back _that_ part of his powers,” Frisk said toward Adeline, wide-eyed with concern over what could have potentially been.

Ern laughed again.  “We have nothing to worry about; DT’s powers are a kind of trump card on all of the other types, since we have the power to reset things.”

Frisk looked back up at Ern with great interest at the mention of resetting.  Ern misread her reactions as not knowing what he meant by reset, though, so began explaining.  “Resets are our ability as DTs.  We can effectively live through something twice, or as many times as we want really.  During your fight, Barr told you to dodge his bullets, expecting you to make a quick save, learn the pattern of his bullets, and then dodge them with ease.”

“I know what saves and resets are,” Frisk complained.

“Oh,” Ern was confused.  “Wait, if you know you can reset, why didn’t you after the fight?  For that matter, why did you take the intro exam if you already knew?”

“Well I didn’t know what all this was,” Frisk defended, “I didn’t know others had what I had, too.  And I don’t really know how it works, either, but several times throughout my time underground, if I knew I was about to die, I’d end up back at a point where there wasn’t any danger.  It honestly kind of took away any fear of death,” she admitted.  _Including fear of_ any _consequence, for that matter,_ Chara added.

Adeline looked to her brother as he nodded and made of face like he was impressed.  “That’s something, I guess.  So,” he brought up a chair and sat at the end of her bed, “Since they’re probably going to wait on teaching you this stuff, and since I’m kind of like your team leader in a way, let me tell you how it works, so you won’t look bad on the DT’s records in the future,” he teased.

“I’ll be right back,” Adeline said, stepping out of the room.  He waved at her and began explaining.

“Think of resets like…” He got up and grabbed a spare bedsheet from off a shelf and partially unfolded it across Frisk’s bed before finishing, “wrinkles you make in fabric.” He pushed two spots of the sheet together creating a small ridge in the center extending to Frisk’s left and right a few inches in length before sitting back down.  “Imagine the sheet here as the whole of timespace.  Along the line from where I’m sitting toward you, think of that as the direction of the flow of time – I’m the past, you’re the future.  The width of the sheet, then, is the whole size of space.”

He paused, thinking over his analogy.  “Or,” he amended, “at least the world.  Other souls continue along the flow of time as though the sheet were flat, not knowing any difference – at most, they’ll feel like things are familiar, having a ‘déjà vu’ moment, but otherwise have no real discernment of repeated events.  DTs, however, take the long way around, going up and around the wrinkle, effectively living the reset time period twice.  Aside from giving us an edge on how situations will play out, this allows us to remember things others can’t, things that might have been changed after the reset.”

“I think I get it,” Frisk said, “But I’ve also met someone else who could make resets, instantaneous ones even, unlike me.  When they reset, I was still able to remember what had happened before, and the same for them whenever I reset.  If everyone else experiences resets like,” she referred to the wrinkle in the sheet, “like there’s no wrinkle in time, how was I able to experience them?”

Ern smiled softly at her.  Then, suddenly, in an absolute instant, Ern blipped out of existence and was nowhere to be seen.  Adeline was standing at the supply counter again.  Frisk looked around, confused, before realizing that Ern must have reset.

“Just like that.” said a voice from the doorway.

“Oh!” exclaimed Adeline, “Frisk, let me introduce you to my brother, Ern.  He’s a Determination-class soul like you, too.”

A black haired, older boy around the same age as Adeline entered the room, striding tall like a man of age and wisdom beyond his years.  “That reset there, Frisk,” he grinned, “was only localized to this room, and a little bit of the surrounding locations.” he grinned.

“Wait,” Adeline paused, looking around like she felt she had been this exact spot before, “How did you— Did you just reset?”

“Just the once, sis,” Ern assured her, “And only by a minute or two.  Frisk wanted to know how resets affect other DT’s.”

Adeline sat silent a few seconds, then turned back to Frisk.  “What do you remember of the past few minutes?”

Frisk told them the conversation they just had, recreating the wrinkle in her own bedsheets that Ern had made a minute before… or was it that he _would_ make in a minute?

“Would _have_ made,” Ern corrected.  “This isn’t time travel in the sense of fixed events, since there’s no such thing as a fixed event!  Everything that happens is malleable, it can be changed – if you know how and when to change it.  From our perspectives, these same minutes are passing twice.  From Ady’s perspective, that previous conversation we had never happened!  This can make DT’s somewhat mysterious, if not just disjointed in our actions – yet despite appearances, we’ll almost always know how things will play out.  Seeing a DT like you allow themselves to get hit is a rare occurrence, though it does happen – but often it’ll be on purpose only for the sake of a greater outcome, not because they didn’t know better like in your case.”

Frisk protested that he still didn’t actually answer her question.

“I was getting to that,” he chuckled.  “Like I said, that reset was centered on this room, extending out only a few ways away from here, and only for those few minutes in time.”  He gestured to the wrinkle Frisk recreated on her bed.  “Lengthwise, along the flow of time, the loop lasts for however long the reset reaches back, or the short diameter of that little ridge.  _Widthwise_ , space-wise, however, the wrinkle slopes back into the smooth cloth, where everyone traveling through _there_ , DTs and all other souls, don’t experience the reset-loop from their perspectives.  So, here, I created a wrinkle a few minutes long, and only the vicinity of the room here wide.”

Frist thought that over.  “So a ‘DT’ just outside of that vicinity wouldn’t have anything repeat for them, everything would continue on as normal.”

“Mostly,” commented Adeline, moving back over to sit next to Frisk, to take care of her shoulder for the second time from Frisk’s point of view.  She expected the pain this time around, and didn’t wince as much when Adeline placed her hand over it.  “I’m not a DT,” Adeline continued, “but what I understand of it, the closer you are to ‘ground-zero’ of the reset (which is always the person who initiates it) the more you’ll experience the full length of it.  So if you’re further away, though not necessarily out of range, you’ll still have a repeating of events, just for a shorter span of time.  Just like how, as the wrinkle gradually fades back into the unwrinkled fabric, the overall size of the ridge shrinks, too.”

“It’s actually a good thing to watch out for as a DT yourself,” continued Ern from his sister, “Small repeating moments – someone repeating themselves exactly the same way, something falling over twice – is evidence that another DT somewhere nearby is resetting things.  If it keeps happening, that might be a sign they need help with their situation.  We DT’s stick together.  We all experience the same events and the same resets, depending on our proximity to each other, so there’s nothing we really fight each other about.”  He paused in thought for a moment.  “Well, except I guess there is the very rare case…” he trailed off, and then waved his hand in the air dismissing the aside.

Frisk did have a second thought about all this.  “That person I said I met before, though, they were actually someone I met in the mountain.  I learned that they had been able to do this because of the amount of Determination they had in them, but when I first fell down there, they lost the ability, like my presence kept them from resetting.”

Ern made a face of surprise.  “I’ve never heard of that happening before.  Of course,” he reasoned, “I’ve never heard of a monster having Reset abilities either.”

“All done,” Adeline said, removing the last of the bandage after having healed Frisk.  She noticed Frisk’s lack of attention on her healing abilities or the dissipating of the pain in her shoulder.  “I take it I already did this for you before?”

Frisk nodded, reiterating what she learned then, too, how Adeline was a Kindness-class soul and Barr a Justice-class soul.  “I also met a couple other kids who come down here, Dustan and Sven.  Dustan and I had a fight where he was able to crash right through me unimpeded, knocking me away.  What’s his soul-type?”

“That could be a couple different kinds, just going by the description of the attack,” Adeline said thoughtfully.  “Was he drawing on his soul’s power at all, like his chest start giving off any distinct color?”

“Yeah, it was an orange color.”

“Bravery,” Ern nodded.  “Each soul-type also has a distinguishing color.  Red is Determination,” he started glowing his own soul in demonstration, and a subtle yet firm cherry-red light began shining from his chest.  “Orange is Bravery, Yellow is Justice, Green is Kindness, Cyan is Patience, Blue is Integrity, and Purple is Perseverance.  You’ll learn about those last three in time, they’re best explained after you’ve seen them yourself than just trying to describe them.”

“But aren’t there eight soul types?” Frisk asked, realizing he only listed seven colors, “Mr. Black said there were, and you only listed seven types.”

Ern laughed a little sheepishly.  “Well, not many people know what that last type is.  All I know is that it’s one of the rarer kinds, it can be really dangerous for every type – even DTs – if it’s not handled correctly. I also know that it just so happens to be Mr. Black’s type.”

“Speaking of which,” Adeline got up and headed toward the door, “I’ll be right back.”

Ern waved to her again like before, though this time Frisk called after her.  “Wait, are you going to go get him?”

Adeline stopped in the doorway, resting her hand on the frame.  “Him and a few others,” she answered.  “I hope that’s okay.  I think Barr wanted to apologize and make sure you’re okay, and your friends Sven and Dustan heard what happened too and wanted to talk when you woke up.”

Frisked nodded passively and then asked what Mr. Black wanted.  “To more formally welcome you to our organization,” Doug Black responded, waiting outside in the hallway behind Adeline.  She quickly got out of his way, excusing herself to go and get the others who wanted to see Frisk.

“I see Ern here has no doubt been explaining to you what the roles of a Determination-class soul are,” Doug said, walking up to Frisk’s side.  “But I bet he hasn’t told you how to perform your abilities yourself yet, has he?”

“We were getting around to it,” Ern lazily shrugged.  “This kid has a lot of questions, boss.”

“How _do_ you do a reset, though?” Frisk asked now that the subject had been raised.

“When you’re well enough I’ll show you in the ring,” Ern told her.  “You said before that ‘unlike you,’ that friend of yours was able to do immediate-resets and loads.  But that’s actually the major part of your power: being able to instantly jump back however long ago, at will, whenever you want.  That passive ‘reload-on-death’ ability is handy, and in your case a literal life-saver, but it’s not too useful in fights unless you made a save right at the start of the fight.  Quick-saves and quick-loads are your best tool, and the sooner you know how to do them, the sooner you can start practicing.”

“So why can’t I just reload to the start of my fight with Barr, now that I know all of this?”

“Well, again, assuming you knew _how_ , which you don’t yet, you more than likely didn’t make a save of any sort then, so you’d be unable to reach that point in time from where you are now.  _Plus_ ,” Ern added with playful hostility, “I was doing something very tedious at the time and I’d prefer to _not_ have to do that all over again, _thank you very much_.”

Chara was standing in front of Doug, staring intently into the coalition leader’s being, as though he were studying his soul.  _How very interesting_.

Frisk turned the conversation back toward Mr. Black by talking about the mysterious eighth soul-type and asking him what he knew about it.  “I know as much about it as I know myself,” Doug answered, “since that is my type.”

“What is it, though?  At least, what is it called?” Frisk pressed.

Doug pulled his gaze away from Frisk and stared into space toward the floor.  Or was he looking down into the eyes of Frisk’s mental image of Chara?  He silently contemplated answering her question for several drawn out seconds before finally responding.

“Hatred,” he said, in a tone that carried an odd jovial vibe for the negative connotative word.  “That’s what we call it.  The kind of soul that looks at the surrounding world asking, ‘What do I _not_ want?’ and anything that can serve to answer such a question, that soul takes away.”  He turned back to Frisk.  “Or in terms of UPPER and our abilities, Hatred souls can suck out the UPPER, the joy, and power out of anything around them.  They can even render another’s powers inert if they act fast enough.”

Ern listened intently to this information, weighing it in his mind with his own speculations.  “I see,” he finally said, glancing over to Frisk as though he was keeping something secret from her.

“In any case,” Doug concluded, “It’s very useful if things were to ever get out of control, as I can sense and put a stop to overpowering mindsets from causing a ruckus.”  He then turned his gaze back toward the same empty spot of floor again for a moment.  Chara’s intrigued grin faded a little.

Their conversation was then interrupted by a shout from the doorway, where a red-topped blur sped up to Frisk’s bed, begging her to know if she was okay.  “I’m fine, Sven,” Frisk laughed, trying to calm him down.  “I’ve already been all healed up.”  She looked toward the end of the ward by the door, watching as Dustan and Adeline stepped through, followed by Barr, whose face was still as hard as stone like before, though his eyes showing more signs of a deeper regret and worry.

Dustan was shaking his head at her in mild disappointment, his arms folded while he leaned against the wall by Adeline.  “Another DT,” he thought out loud, “I should’ve known.  No way could someone’ve befriended all those freak-shows from down below without knowing what they were gettin’ into beforehand.”  He was lucky there weren’t any monsters around to take offense, though Frisk made a mental note to limit her interactions with him concerning her monster friends if possible.

Barr steadily approached her, his hands neatly at his sides.  “No hard feelings about before, right?” he asked.

Frisk shook her head, telling him how she’d learned about his powers and soul-type, and told him she’d learn to master her own abilities and give him something more interesting to try to shoot at.  This actually made his immovable expression break into a small smile at the corners of his mouth, and he relaxed a bit, giving her a friendly nod."

After a little more time was spent welcoming Frisk to COUGH and a general mingling among friends, Adeline decided to get everyone’s attention. “Okay everyone, Frisk will still need to rest a little longer before she can be back on her feet again.  Or at least before she goes home for the day, so let’s all give her the room.”

They all bid their goodbyes and left one by one.  As Adeline watched them leave, she couldn’t help but let her soul radiate its fresh and comforting green hue.  As she and her brother Ern finally left the room, he made a small note to her about the color and how vibrant it seemed to be.  “I guess that’s to be expected,” he said to Adeline while they strolled down the hallway toward some of the infirmary’s offices, “With a kid like Frisk, I’d be surprised if you _weren’t_ filled with some feeling of **Kindness**.”


	5. Dreams

 

The next few days were simple enough.  School ran normally for the first week back from a long vacation, and COUGH was nothing but accommodating for everyone’s timing needs.  Frisk herself was given a few days to make sure she was well enough after her first encounter before beginning her lessons in being a Determination-class soul.  She had been told that Ern had specifically requested to be her trainer.

Finally it was the weekend, so Frisk could spend more time down in the facility.  Of course, with the school being closed, she had to get Sven to show her the way to one of COUGH’s more official entrances.  Toriel had been concerned upon hearing the story of Frisk’s battle against Barr, and was of half of a mind to pull Frisk out right then.  When she heard about the healer girl Adeline, though, and how quick and effortlessly Frisk had been fixed up, she was relieved to understand that her surrogate daughter was in good hands and contentedly drove Frisk and Sven to COUGH Headquarters downtown.

A large building loomed over them with the words ‘Institute for the Magical Sciences’ in big letters set above the front entrance.  Sven told her COUGH wasn’t the only group that had been set up to figure out what souls and magic were made and capable of, “My dad told me the people in charge in the city here paid a bunch of scientists to figure this stuff out.  He said that even before the monsters came back, the people in charge wanted to know a way they could empower people more and get everyone to be stronger at stuff.  He said they were afraid of something, but they wouldn’t say what.”

“What does your dad do?” Frisk asked as they went up to the front desk.  The receptionist was the same that spoke to Frisk when she had taken her entrance exam with Barr.  Barely looking up, the receptionist directed her and Sven to the elevators down to COUGH’s tunnels and hallways below.

“He’s on the city council with those higher-up people he was talking about.  He’s got a lot of secrets he can’t really tell anyone, but he told me there was something big they wanted to try and stop.  That was all I could get out of him, though.”

 _At least we now know where he gets his loose-lips from_ , Chara mused.  Frisk made a gesture of zipping her lips, and Sven showed his relief.  “I know I can’t keep secrets well,” he apologized, “I gotta tell someone when I find something cool – so it’s nice having a friend who can keep secrets for me.”

The two headed down in the elevators, which were noticeably a lot nicer than the ones underneath the school.  They also looked like they could carry even more weight, and were a lot roomier than the other ones.  In shorter time than Frisk expected, the doors opened into a part of the facility she hadn’t seen yet.

Scores of kids, teens, and adults walked, ran, jumped, sat, talked, laughed, glowed, and fought all throughout the enormous chamber she and Sven stepped into.  “This is where I usually hang out,” Sven told her.  “It’s the main complex that branches off into all the other parts.  There’s a cafeteria, a gym, an indoor playground, and all kinds of stuff to do around here.  Although, if you’re just looking to train, you can take the moving sidewalk things to get around the hallways faster, since this place is huge.  Definitely watch for signs if you get lost.  And uniformed grownups, too,” he added, “they’re the ones who actually manage this place – I _think_ they’re the main group of scientists, but no one’s really told me one way or another on that.”

Frisk thought she saw Dustan somewhere in the crowd, though he hadn’t yet noticed them yet, if it was him.  She hasted to tell Sven she’d see him later and headed down the halls, following the signs on the walls toward the rooms she was more familiar with from her previous days.  She wasn’t sure where exactly to find Ern, but she felt she could ask Adeline where he was, if he was there.  Chara was silent while she strode down the halls, though kept up a pleasant demeanor in her mind.  Frisk had become aware of how much Chara seemed to enjoy the quiet, and though she still refused to direct any of her thoughts to him, she found herself doing so more for his sake rather than for her own protection.  Overall, her new friends were certainly a mixed bag, though she wasn’t sure if the term friend really applied in Chara’s case.  They were stuck together, as he had pointed out, and it didn’t make sense for him to keep tormenting her when he had something to gain from this place as much as her.

The idea of Chara growing stronger was a terrifying notion, since she had already witnessed how capable he was at destroying the entire world when she had brought his spirit back from her actions.  And then, he brought it all back again, in exchange for her soul.  The memories of her dead friends threatened to rise up again, but then she felt they were getting shoved back down by a more powerful force.  Chara shifted in his mental corner like someone rolling back over to sleep after shutting off an alarm.  He remained mute in his verbal language, though his intention was clear.  He and Frisk had an understanding, and if she respected him in all the ways that meant, he’d help her with her problems.  For how long he’d continue like that, though, Frisk could not tell.

Frisk’s movements were quickened by the moving sidewalk conveyer beneath her feet, though she wasn’t sure if she was just not paying attention while in her thoughts, or if the conveyer belt suddenly transported her back near the start of it.  Her train of thought was then interrupted by someone calling after her from behind.  She saw Ern dashing up to her from behind, running along the moving strip to catch up to her.  He looked a little winded and as he approached he breathed something about “trying this again.”

When Frisk asked what was wrong, he waved it off simply saying that it was nothing, “just had a little problem with the moving sidewalk first time around, that’s all.”

She then understood that that was the second time she had experienced someone else perform a reset near her – not counting her fight against ‘Omega’-Flowey – realizing the repetition of traveling down the same stretch of hallway as being an effect of Ern resetting in close quarters.  “I want to learn how that works,” she said, “How do you actually _do_ a reset?”

He caught his breath and smiled at her, leading her to the same arena she had fought Barr in.  Amused, he showed her the ever-so-slight dent in the wall where she had been knocked into it by the Justice-soul’s bullet attack.  “Okay, let’s get started,” he directed, moving to face Frisk.

“Are we fighting?” Frisk asked.  He shook his head.

“Nah, I just like the environment.  Beats sitting in a desk while you learn this stuff.  Plus,” he sat down cross-legged on the floor, “we wouldn’t have to go anywhere if we _did_ suddenly start fighting.  Not that that’s likely, given our powers, but still.”  She sat down across from him, waiting for him to start explaining.

“This is what we call a ‘save’,” he began, the red light of his soul starting to swell in his chest.  “You don’t have to show your soul’s light while doing this, but it doesn’t hurt for demonstration’s sake.”  He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath.

“What you want to do is forget the bulk of what’s around you: focus instead on the situation itself, any details that speak to you, what you or others are doing.  Let it fill your soul with Determination, and cling to the feeling: memorize it and _save_ it for later,” he instructed calmly.  “This is the action of making a save.  It’s different from a memory since that’s in your head.  This is like a memory you’re storing in your soul.  It’s like your memories of dreams, particularly strong ones that felt special to you: you may not remember exactly every detail, at least not for long, but the feeling it gave you lasts for however long you keep it with you.

This is also why you can’t have more than one save at a time,” he continued.  “It gets too difficult to retain the feeling of both, so the most recent one – the stronger one – will overwrite the older one, which has gotten more faded with time.”

“What if I wrote it down in a journal?” Frisk postulated.

“Those can help, though what you’re going for is the specific feeling of the event that occurred – and it has to have occurred, it doesn’t do anything to force yourself to feel something that never existed in the first place.  This is also why you can’t outright revert to another way things might have gone after you change something – that other way no longer exists, and in your current perspective of things, _never_ existed in that way.”

“So how will I know if I’ve correctly made a save?”

Ern hesitated to give an answer.  “I guess you don’t really, there’s nothing that outright tells you at least.  After a while you sort of get used to the feeling, though, that you did it right.  It just takes practice, really, just making saves and loads enough times that it sort of becomes natural.”  He shrugged.  “So look at the situation we’re in right now, feel it out, and then I’ll teach you about loads.  We’ll see if it worked, then.”

Frisk nodded and took a few seconds to view her surroundings with a kind of introspective detachment.  She saw Ern’s expression of patience as he watched her, felt the nicely conditioned air temperature around her in the well-lit arena, and basked in the calming atmosphere of empty hallways around.  She couldn’t really feel anything from these subjects, however, so she kept searching.  She felt out Chara, who promptly poked her brain back in response, and she felt out the serene emptiness he had been keeping tidy around him.  She thought about the situation as a whole, the experience of learning how to save, and the prospect of getting a hold on her power to be able to do it at will.  She thought about Chara’s help in keeping her stable, despite expectations to the contrary.

She saw the patience in her mentor as he sat with her, and was filled with DETERMINATION.

Her chest fired up with the same doubly-powerful burst of light as before, as the feeling filled her soul and her mind, so much so that Chara was practically swimming in the stuff.  Ern leaned back in surprise.  “I guess that means you got it,” he laughed.  “Might wanna watch your soul in the future – if it shines that bright, you might end up scaring some folks with it rather than impressing them!”

“So this is a ‘save’,” Frisk spoke, breathlessly getting a handle on the feeling.

Ern nodded.  He opened his mouth to speak, but then stopped when an idea hit him.  “Actually, you know what?  I’m not going to teach you how to perform a load just yet,” he smiled at her.  “Since it’s _abundantly_ obvious you correctly made a save, there’s something you should experience – sooner rather than later, really.  Not that that means much in what I’m about to challenge you with.”  Frisk began to protest but he told her to hear him out.

“What I want you to do is to not make any more saves than this – none at all.  If you do then this won’t work, since you won’t be able to load to this spot.  I’m thinking of a number between one and a thousand, and in… let’s say three years, I’ll tell you what number I was thinking of when I teach you how to load.  Then you’re gonna load up this moment, and tell me what number I’m thinking of.”  He paused, as though he expected a response.  Frisk just stayed still, listening to his idea.  He then continued, “Until then, just live life as normal.  Come down here to hang out if you want, maybe get trained in some combat techniques, get to know people, that sort of thing.  There’s lots you can do in three years, lots that can happen.  No matter what happens, though, don’t make _any_ more saves, got it?”

“If I do, then I won’t be able to tell you what number you were thinking about?” Frisk thought out loud.

“Yeah, you have one shot to tell me what number I’m thinking of, and one shot only.  Miss that, and you’ll never know what comes next after me teaching you how to load,” he winked with a grin.  Frisk could see he wasn’t going to budge on this idea, so she instead nodded and stayed determined to waiting out the next… three years.

 _This is going to be a bit tedious, I imagine_ , Chara sighed.  _Oh well, ‘life goes on,’ as they say.  Three years to live life as normal.  Except you have me helping you, so not precisely ‘normal’._

 _“Three years to live life as normal,”_ Frisk repeated, directing the thought to him before she could catch herself.  Chara looked a little surprised, and then smiled softly.

 _Yes,_ he agreed warmly, _Let’s see what the future holds._

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

The weekend passed, Frisk having made her agreement with Ern about her abilities.  She at least knew how they worked somewhat, so she could begin to understand how other DTs around her performed their resets.  She hung out with Sven and Dustan, and was pleased the latter said nothing offensive toward her.  His flirtations had quickly become more obvious, and she deftly sidestepped them, being a well-versed flirt herself when she wanted to be.  When the school week started again, she met many other class mates she had seen down in COUGH, and her circle of human friends had begun to steadily grow.

Weeks passed, and her classes were going well – though it helped that she had both a teacher for a mother and an inexplicably intelligent soul-mate in her head to keep her on course.  Down in COUGH, she had taken Ern’s suggestion and began to learn some combat techniques that could prove useful in the future.  Or the past, she recalled, since she’d load back to a few weeks ago from now once she learned how to do it.  She got to witness a few intriguing fights between various different kinds of soul-types, including several different Determination-souls.  One fight she spectated was between Ern and the number nine spot on the leaderboards, an older girl who was a Bravery-class like Dustan.  She learned the power behind Braveries was what was referred to as the ‘Tank ability,’ that as long as they kept moving, nothing could hurt them, and anything that they ran into would get blown away.  She remembered her fight against Dustan and compared that to how Ern masterfully stepped out of the way of the girl’s charges.  It seemed no matter how fast or powerfully she ran toward him, as long as he knew what was coming she couldn’t land a single hit – at least not from her perspective.  After ten minutes, the match was called as a draw, since neither of them had been able to successfully land a hit on each other.

Months passed.  Frisk rarely, if ever, got any flashbacks to that dark timeline now.  Chara had been assisting her very well in being an overall comfort, and she had even taken a risk by considering him a friend.  She was still a bit guarded, but she knew there really was nothing she could do if he wanted to take over, or cause her pain, or any other cruel thing he would be capable of.  Flowey eventually returned and was hesitant to reveal himself to any of the other monsters.  He knew they would all remember his most recent attempt at stealing the six human souls they had and would probably have some reservations against him, but at Frisk’s assurance he made the attempt at being somewhat approachable.  Seeing Frisk’s trust in him caused the others to warm up to the flower quickly.  Toriel had even seen fit to plant him his own garden section complete with a bottomless dog-house that he could pop into and use as his own private room.  Not that a flower needed much privacy, but he was thankful nonetheless.  When no one was around, he would chat kindly with Chara, with Frisk acting as intermediary at first, reminiscing about the days when they both had their own bodies and would get into and cause all kinds of trouble.  Eventually, Frisk decided to take a chance and let Chara speak for himself like he did when Flowey first came to her months ago.  Chara respectfully took control, though also forcing control over the rest of Frisk’s body, too, and sat having a pleasant conversation with his old friend.  After they finished, he readily gave Frisk back control, returning peacefully to his quiet side of her mind.

A year passed.  Frisk had fought her way up the ranks to the number ten spot in COUGH’s leaderboards, and without any usage of reset abilities.  She had been trained well in fighting techniques, losing some and winning many others.  Outside of COUGH, she also trained with Undyne, who had literally leapt at the news of Frisk learning to fight.  Asgore also tagged along in training Frisk, when he could get away from his duties as the monsters’ leader and his position in the city council over monster-affairs.  Soon it became a weekly get-together for all her friends, monsters and humans, to hang out while she, Undyne, Asgore, and anyone else who wanted to, all spared against each other.  Over the course of the year, other human and monster relations had been growing, and both cultures began to slowly but surely mingle with each other, monsters and humans beginning to live with and near each other more, work places assembling better accommodations for monster labor, and schools adapting their curriculums and other aspects of their environments to integrate monster children with the human children.

Another year passed.  Frisk had begun to notice some changes as she began to mature into her preteen years.  A young woman was starting to blossom, and the young boys - who too were becoming young men – began to take greater notice of her.  Even Sven had eventually worked up the courage to ask her out once, before running off ashamed before she could give her answer.  Turned out the boy had had a crush on her for a long time, only to blow it the first chance he got to express himself.  Flowey did have the gall to ask once how she and Chara worked out ‘private’ matters of her body.  The truth was Chara was ever-present in her mind, and even as her body grew and matured, it was just as much his home as it was hers – she controlled it more than she allowed him to, which he was fine with, but the fact remained, he didn’t see Frisk with any level of that kind of attraction.  He might have been incapable of such feelings, or he might have been intelligent enough to be able to not view her under such terms, but the truth remained: Chara was content enough to simply _have_ a body to inhabit at all.  Despite the simplicity of that truth, though, Frisk had found it better to make Flowey lose a few petals rather than try to explain it to him.  The cackling he made at her aggressive response was proof enough of that.

The third year went by.  Alphys and Undyne had finally gotten married, after a hilarious occasion when both of them proposed to each other at the same time.  Sans and Toriel had moved on past each other, their relationship riding the line, but never actually moving beyond very close friends.  With some encouragement, Toriel and Asgore had finally made up with each other, and though there was no romance between them, they too were able to look each other in the eye again as friends.  Papyrus and Dustan had grown an intricate relationship of friendly rivals, both of them making a lot of talk, and even throwing a few punches and bones at each other, but neither of them actually having the nerve to hurt one another.  Dustan still spoke somewhat poorly of monsters, his mind resolute in staying comfortable with what was familiar to him, but over the years he began to soften and welcome monsters with greater kindness – which might’ve been attributed to Adeline having asked him out on dates and the two of them getting rather close, much to Ern's machiavelian glee.  Sven eventually got over his embarrassment with Frisk and decided to remain comfortable as a friend of hers, nothing more.  Even she and Chara had gotten quite close, and though he was never revealed to anyone else, she allowed him to take control whenever he needed to, which helped greatly in both combat scenarios and day-to-day living.

Everything seemed perfect, that as long as things stayed their course, this was definitely a happy ending.  As Frisk reflected on all of this, with Chara mentally at her side, his soul beating as one with hers, she found that the result of the past three years had filled her with—

“Eight.”

Frisk whipped around.  She had been leaning over the railing watching a battle between a Perseverance-soul and a Justice-soul unfold.  Ern had been standing behind her, looking at a watch on his wrist.

“Probably not to the exact minute, but this very hour, day, and month are exactly three years from when I taught you how to make a save,” Ern told her, looking up from his watch.  “You haven’t made any more, have you?”

Frisk shook her head, brushing the thoughts she was about to have had under the proverbial rug.  Chara snickered.

“Good,” he replied proudly, “I’ll teach you how to load your save, then.  And in case you didn’t get it the first time, the number I was thinking of?  Between one and a thousand?  It was eight.  Like my ranking at the time,” he grinned.

Frisk stood without a word until Ern motioned for her to follow him to another room where they could talk without a crowd.  “Sum up for me what you’ve learned this past year,” he instructed.

She thought about the past three years, recalling all of the more striking details and events that had occurred.  Evoking all of this to him, he turned back to her nodding his head.  “Good.  You’re gonna want to tell me that when you go back.  I don’t want to be near you when you reset, since I don’t want to remember a thing about any of this.  If I remember, then I’d have the sense of going through it all again like an ordeal.  If it’s practically the first time for me, though, then it’s all the better.”

“Why did you have me wait three years before teaching me how to load?”

He shrugged absently.  “No particular reason, it was just the first number to come to my head.”  He spun around suddenly. “Uh, after I chose the number eight that is, heh.”  He turned back around, leading her down the halls.  “It’s not a terrible thing, you know, living out the future like this and then going back.  The longest I’ve ever gone before resetting was ten years.  I was in my twenties when I reverted back to my preteen years.  DTs, we have the ability to look young to everyone else, but to have age and wisdom and knowledge that doesn’t show on our exteriors.  We can know things that the world won’t discover for decades, maybe even a century.  I remember I heard a tale of an ancient DT who had lived and relived so much that he had discovered technologies that his village and the kingdom at large wouldn’t discover for several centuries, but because he had built on his recursive knowledge he had figured it all out for himself.  Of course,” he looked back to Frisk, “That story loses some credibility when you take into account how it has two endings: in one version, the DT had learned so much that he figured out the secret to living and became immortal, having all the time in the universe to figure everything else out.  The other ending says he went mad and burned his village to the ground and was eventually captured and put to death by the kingdom’s forces.”

“I guess the idea of being able to live and relive until you have all the answers has some drawbacks,” Frisk mused.

Ern shook his head.  “I don’t agree with that notion.  I personally like the first story, where he became immortal.  I mean, if you had all the time in _all_ of time, plus you could reset and replay things or change things, you could pretty much be considered… well, a god, basically.  You could learn any skill, have any answer to any question, and know the people around you like the back of your hand, and all within the perceived instant of anyone else.” Ern made a small breathless laugh, considering the thought.

Frisk could feel Chara moving around in her head.  “The other option seems just as likely, though,” she spoke grimly.  “Once you know everything that could ever happen, once you’ve lived enough and relived enough, what’s to stop you from…” she almost couldn’t say it, “from killing and 'lighting your village on fire' and doing other terrible things to the people around you, out of pure boredom with any other possibility?”

Ern didn’t know how to answer that.  He finally just shook his head.  “I guess I prefer the first story,” he simply stated, entering a small room that would serve their needs.

“Anyway,” he brushed their previous discussion aside, “Do you still remember how to make a save?”

Frisk nodded, “But I shouldn’t make one, right?  Since I’m going to be going back… three… years ago.”  It finally dawned on her that she was going to be undoing all of the wondrous and happy experiences she’d had over the years.  “Hang on,” she objected, “why am I doing this?”

“For three reasons, really,” Ern held out his hand to count up the reasons on his fingers.  “First, because I’m not going to teach you what comes next after learning how to load if you don’t go back and tell me what number I was thinking of; second, because it’s a good experience for DTs to learn that no matter how long ago the save was made, if it was made right, it won’t ever fade away for good, you’ll always be able to reach it; and third, because now you’ve learned how to fight, you know the proper relationships people want to have with each other and can actively work to improve those relations, and you know what important events are eventually going to go down and can be ready for them this time.  For everyone else, you’ll suddenly have all of that in an instant: the training and learning of three years all folded neatly into the fabric of timespace, where no one else knows any time passed at all.”

Frisk was silent.  She thought internally toward Chara, seeing what he suggested.  _I suggest you go back.  We’ve learned and grown a lot in our time here, and if we want something to happen, we can make it happen again – and this time with real intent.  This next time around, you’ll be strong enough to take on stronger opponents sooner, before they get out of your reach.  It’s ultimately your decision, though, that is merely my own advice._

Eventually, Frisk looked back up at Ern, nodding her head with approval.  He clapped his hands together eagerly.  “Okay!” he cheered, “Remember back to that first time Barr took you down and you had to go to the infirmary?  I told you that the whole of timespace for a DT that resets or loads a save is like a sheet with a wrinkle in it.  That save you have stored inside your soul, the feeling of what reality for you was at that time, think of that like a specific spot on the fabric you want to jump to – to get there, you make a wrinkle between where you are now and the point you’re reaching back to.  Reminiscing is one thing, when one reaches back with the memories in their heads at a spot they wish they could return to.  Actually going back there, however, requires both the memory in your soul, the save you made, as well as one other crucial ingredient, which you already know: Determination.  As it’s since been defined, determination is the power to change fate, to continue on despite circumstances, and in this case, even change time itself.  Determination coupled with the power of your soul, and the save your soul carries within it, is what makes resetting possible.”

“Okay,” Frisk was listening, but wanted to move on from the theory to action, “So how do I load my save?”

“Just like how you made the save, feel out the situation,” he directed, “not the situation here, now, but the situation you had saved.  Bring that feeling back up within you, let it fill your being.  Once you have it, once you can feel how determined it still makes you, let yourself fall into that reality and take precedence over everything else currently around you.  And then, with the power of your soul, your relative position in time will revert to that previous save.”

“Didn’t you also talk about having to account for space or something?” Frisk asked.

“Yes, but you don’t need to worry about that right now – usually, resets are centered on the person who does them and no one else.  If you want other DTs to experience it, like when I reset for you at that time, you have to extend the influence outward from yourself to envelop whoever else you’re affecting with your reset.  But don’t consider that a factor right now and just keep it to yourself.  Though it does naturally fade back into ‘flat-time’ even if it’s not extended from yourself, so like I said before, I’m not going to stick around while you load since I don’t want to remember any of this first-hand.  Sometimes it’s better to do things several times around, but other times it’s better to do things like they’re the first time without prior knowledge.”

Frisk nodded, starting to make her soul glow out of her chest.  “Eight, right?” she asked once more.

“Yep, eight,” Ern moved to leave the room then, seeing Frisk’s soul light up.  “Wait for that long pause I made to tell me the number,” he said, heading out the door.  “I’ll see you in three years ago,” he grinned, amused at his usage of ‘time-travel appropriate’ tenses.  “Oh, one last thing, don’t be alarmed or weirded out by suddenly having a younger body again.  Your mind and soul are the only things that go past the reset – everything else gets, well, reset.”  He then ran down the hall, getting away from Frisk as quick as possible.

 _Ah yes, experiencing puberty again,_ Chara deadpanned. _How fun._

Frisk shook her head and focused on the save.  She mulled over her soul and pleasantly received that same feeling from years ago from sitting in the arena with Ern.  She let the feeling fill her up, the DETERMINATION setting her whole being aflame, the UPPER that made it all getting reshuffled and reorganized back to the state everything was in.

There was a light.

 

And then nothing.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

She blinked, and suddenly she was back in the arena, Ern sitting across from her.  She felt short, yet also a bit lighter.  She’d have to accommodate those factors into her combat style, since she was used to fighting with her more matured body.

Ern leaned back in surprise.  “I guess that means you got it,” he laughed.  “Might wanna watch your soul in the future – if it shines that bright, you might end up scaring some folks with it rather than impressing them!”

Frisk looked down, seeing the bright and red shine of soul power bursting through her chest.  She remembered what she had said before in this conversation and decided to stick to the script until Ern’s long pause.  “So this is a ‘save’,” Frisk spoke, repeating her own lines and giving herself the same breathless tone she remembered she had before.

Ern nodded.  He opened his mouth to speak, but then stopped when an idea hit him.  “Actually, you know what?  I’m not going to teach you how to perform a load just yet,” he smiled at her.  “Since it’s _abundantly_ obvious you correctly made a save, there’s something you should experience – sooner rather than later, really.  Not that that means much in what I’m about to challenge you with.”  Frisk began to protest again but he told her to hear him out.

“What I want you to do is to not make any more saves than this – none at all.  If you do then this won’t work, since you won’t be able to load to this spot.  I’m thinking of a number between one and a thousand, and in… let’s say three years, I’ll tell you what number I was thinking of when I teach you how to load.  Then you’re gonna load up this moment, and tell me what number I’m thinking of.”  He paused, as though he expected a response.

“Eight,” Frisk hastily responded, finding the right moment to say it.

Ern froze.  He stared at Frisk for several seconds before he burst out laughing.  “Oh my god!  I didn’t actually think you’d go through with it!” he got out between guffaws.  “Did- Did you really wait three years!?  Oh my _goodness!_   Now THAT’S some determination right there!”

Frisk stared wide eyed at his reaction, the feeling of betrayal washing over her.  She could feel Chara just as dumbfounded.  Apparently he remembered as well.

“Oh, oh man,” Ern settled down to chuckles, wiping his eyes.  “Don’t feel too bad about it, Frisk.  While it was a joke, it was also a learning exercise for you.  An important one every DT has to go through sometime.”  He let out one last giggle before adding, “Besides, like I said before, you may not remember every detail of what could still happen, but the feeling it gave you lasts for however long you keep it with you.  That’s the joy of saves.  Even if you can’t get all those reset experiences back exactly how they happened, you can still remember them from the depths of your soul.  That’s why we call them ‘saves,’ because you’re rescuing what technically never happened yet from oblivion and keeping them with you from here on out.”

Frisk recalled back on all of her resets down under Mount Ebott.  “But they never happened, those times that reset, they don’t… matter, right?”

“No, they might not have happened, at least not yet, but they still matter!” he reasoned.  “They’re all a part of you now, everything that you saw, everything you experienced, and everything you did: it all adds up to who _you_ are in the culmination of your being.  It all is what makes your soul.  It’s all UPPER, like Mr. Black says.”

Frisk shifted her seat from sitting cross legged to a more defensible position with her knees up to her face.  “But they didn’t happen, right?”

He didn’t know what, but he could tell there was a past experience that bothered her and he tried to comfort her.  “No, whatever it was, it didn’t happen.  You might still remember it, and the feeling of it might still add something to yourself, but no, no it didn’t happen.”

Frisk looked up at him, and he offered a hand to help her up.

She could hear Chara gently singing a nursery rhyme about rowing a boat down a stream in her mind.

She hugged herself in support.  Chara finished singing and gave his own comfort.

_Those past reset times are now nothing but mere Hopes and **Dreams**._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of Part 1! ...Sorta. Not really dividing this into parts, but w/e. It feels like an end of a part to me, I suppose.   
>  Hope everyone's been enjoying it so far, at least as much as I've been. It's been a bit of a roller coaster writing these last several chapters, but I think after a very brief recharging over the weekend here, I'll be ready to write some more.   
>  Or maybe I'll completely belay rest and stay up to five in the morning writing the next chapter tomorrow. Who knows!
> 
> In any case, **Chapter 6: HATRED** is up next!  
> Thanks everyone for reading so far.


	6. HATRED

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Choose rather to be strong of soul than strong of body."  
> -Pythagoras

Contrary to what one might believe, ‘Hatred’ is actually one of the happiest and wisest types of souls there are.  Their view of the world around them is much like the view of a puzzle, from the perspective of a single piece.  Every inch of beauty and the flawless clockwork of reality around them is visible, the methods by which it all flows and interlocks together fully apparent.  This way of viewing the world is necessary for a Hatred soul, since the one thing they cannot see with clarity are their own selves: they rely on the surrounding world to guide their actions.

That said, the key feature of a Hatred soul is its ability to decide what it does not want to see in that grand picture of reality, and take it away like a vacuum.  Despite all of the beauty they see, the horrors and pains of humanity (and now monster-kind as well) are also clearly visible to them.  Good Hatred souls will do all they can to suck out the bad, rendering ne’er-do-wells incapable of their foul deeds, and letting the victims of their crimes escape.  Hatreds with higher LV can even sap the energies out of impending physical disasters, natural or otherwise.

When the City Council commissioned Doug Black to use his research for enabling the populace against the mysterious doom that lied ahead, he thought he found the solution in discovering the Hatred soul type.  When other soul types became much more prominent in their powers, however – namely those of Determination, Justice, Kindness, Integrity, and Perseverance – it was clear that whatever this secret peril that awaited in a future day was, it wouldn’t be solved by simply sucking it away.

He had questioned the City Council’s claims when he had requested a few DTs to search the possible futures, reload and report back what calamity was going to occur, only for them to say that nothing was amiss.  One even elected to go as far ahead as they could, but in all of ninety-two years of life, reloading from their deathbed, they could not determine what grave catastrophe would get the Council so concerned.

It was a side project he had taken up on his own to try and dig up what the Council knew, utilizing the soul power he had available to do so.  And though it was only done by those who volunteered, there were only a few trusted dozen that had been briefed about the situation.  So seeing the young girl Frisk standing before his desk, asking him straight out what the danger that the Council was so afraid of was, he could only stare in shock.  He had sensed something strange about her since they had first met, and now that she was coming to him with privileged information that neither he nor his colleagues had bestowed, alarm bells were going off in his mind.

He quickly composed himself, got up to shut the door to his office, and promptly sat back down again.  He stared at Frisk in silence a few seconds longer, still trying to figure out that mysterious duality this young girl possessed.

Frisk felt Chara shift uncomfortably in her mind.  “Sir?” she repeated, getting Mr. Black’s attention.

Doug bowed his head and smiled softly.  “Sorry, I’ve been distracted by other things recently.  What was your question?”

“I was told there was something that the city’s officials had been alerted to,” Frisk explained her curiosity in more detail, “and that’s what COUGH and a bunch of other science agencies around here had been brought together for.  I guess I wanted to ask you if you knew what it is that they’re so worried about.”

Doug thought over his options.  He could tell her, bring her in on the current understanding of the situation, but she was still a relatively new member of COUGH.  He did see something different about her, the way she spoke and the way she stood seemed much more grown up than how she was the last time he saw her – did Ern make her go into the future?  Did she see something that would have tipped her off to the whole scenario?

He conceded that it wasn’t helpful to keep secrets about things, especially when both parties could be benefitted from sharing information.  “Can I trust you to keep this knowledge to yourself?” he began.

Frisk nodded, reminded about Sven and his beans-spilling habits.  Mr. Black reached down and unlocked a safe hidden behind his desk, pulling out a folder of papers with a label reading, “For Authorized Personnel Only,” stamped across the front.

“I’m hereby authorizing you as a full member of Project Escapement,” he said authoritatively.  He pulled out another file filled to the brim with papers, and opened it to the F section.  Finding Frisk’s sheet and information, he wrote some notes on it, signed at the bottom, stamped it, and transferred it over to the folder that Frisk assumed was for ‘Project Escapement’.

“Okay,” he finally spoke when finished, putting away the large file filled with every member of COUGH’s information, “Now that the more crucial paperwork’s out of the way, we can discuss things.”

Frisk looked back up at him.  “Er, what is Project Escapement?” she asked, slightly confused.

“It’s the name of the program that the Council put together that all of the science agencies around here are a part of.  COUGH is just the more public, initiatory face our branch has put forward, allowing all people to learn about their own souls and strengthen themselves for what’s to come.”

“And what _is_ coming?” Frisk pressed.

Doug let out a discontented exhale through his nose.  “That’s exactly what we’re trying to find out.”  He paused for a moment, before asking, “How did you find out about this?”

Frisk hesitated.  If she were three years younger in her mind, she would have told Mr. Black naively without any concern for possible consequences.  She didn’t want Sven to get punished for blabbing, however, so she cautiously approached the truth.  “The person who told me, they won’t get in trouble for telling me, will they?”

Doug thought over the way she responded and let out a small laugh.  “It was Sven, wasn’t it?  No no, he’s not in trouble.  His father is on the council, which is probably where he got it.  Did he tell you what it was, the thing the council is worried about?”

Frisk shook her head.  “He said his dad wouldn’t say.”

Doug slumped slightly at that.  “That figures,” he grumbled.  He then picked himself back up again.  “Anyway, I should tell you that your inclusion in Project Escapement and the things our division does in it is entirely voluntary.  Any time you want to back out is perfectly okay.  We just ask you keep the information you learn to yourself – the way forward is to methodically work out solutions, not to frantically try every method in a blind panic, if you catch my drift.”

Frisk nodded again, but stopped to ask, “Though, how can you work out any solutions if you don’t know what the exact problem is?”

Doug snickered.  “That’s the _first_ solution we’re looking for.  Using what we have at our disposal, Project Escapement is trying to figure out just what the future disaster actually is.  Once we know that, then we can work out solutions on how to either beat it or survive through it.”

“Why hasn’t any of the Council told you what it is?”

“Well,” he hesitated to say it, “given the circumstances, it’s either because there’s no need to tell us at this moment, or, as a worst case, they themselves don’t know what it is.”

“But they know _something_ is coming, right?”

“Yes, we have been assured of that.”  He then turned the conversation back to Frisk.  “Has Ern taught you how to save and load yet?”

Frisk gave a slightly annoyed smile, “Yeah, he had me go three years into the future before he taught me how to load.”

Doug chuckled and nodded at that.  “And in those three years, nothing big ever occurred?”

Frisk shook her head.  She remarked to him how everything actually worked out to a fairly happy state for everyone she knew.  Thinking it over, however, she and Chara agreed that there was something strange: “Actually, everything was so perfect that it’s almost as if all of the COUGH associates and the Council just forgot about anything bad happening.  It was almost as if COUGH had just turned into a massive school for teaching people about themselves, and everyone got along fine.  I never heard from Sven or anyone else in those three years about any huge event happening.”  She was reminded about Sven’s attempt to ask her out on a date in that time and briefly wondered if he had a crush now, or if it developed later.  She put the thought to the side for later and focused back on Mr. Black.

Doug nodded as he processed that observation of hers.  “We’ve gotten similar reports from other DTs,” he told her.  “No matter how far ahead they go, no matter what different things they try, things don’t just carry on as normal, the whole world suddenly becomes so much better.  It’s still life, there’s still some bad that happens, but it’s all noticeably diminished after a certain point.  Which is great, but it doesn’t help us figure out what the City Council is concerned about.”

“How do they know something is coming, anyway?”

“They say they have a reliable source that’s predicted many things in the past,” Doug confided.  “In fact, the source predicted the Monsters’ return from underground – In riddles and a prophecy, but still.”

Frisk recalled the prophecy she had heard mentions of in the underground.  “It wouldn’t have anything to do with an angel descending down to the Monsters, would it?”

Doug felt like he was beginning to make a habit of being surprised by Frisk.  This was truly a remarkable child, which only reassured him of his choice to bring her in on Project Escapement.  “Yes, that’s right.  Was there a prophecy like that in the underground?”

Frisk nodded.  She told him all that she had read and was told concerning the prophecy of the angel that had seen the surface returning, and causing the underground to empty.  She realized as she spoke those words that one could interpret her past actions, in both freeing Monsters and… making the underground ‘empty,’ as the actions of the angel – one of life, and the other an angel of death.  The prophecy had been fulfilled in full.

“Then the counsel’s source was right again,” Doug stated unsurprised.

“What is there for me to do, then?” Frisk requested, getting back on topic.

“As a DT and as a participant in Project Escapement, your primary duty is to keep a lookout.  You know the basics behind making saves and loads, so if anything that matches the description of some cataclysmic event occurs, it’s your job to reload and warn us about it.”  He got up from behind his desk and walked toward the door to let Frisk out.  “Other than that, though, for now keep training.  Hopefully you picked up some useful skills in those three years, because now it’s time for you to learn what DTs are really capable of.”

“I did get up to number ten in the leaderboards,” Frisk tried not to brag as she strode past him through the doorway.

“I assume that’s without any resets,” Doug said.  “I’m impressed.  You must know how to put up a good fight.”

The next day, Frisk met back up with Ern in the arena, where it looked like he was meditating cross-legged in the center.

“Ah, Frisk,” he said in a slow and trance-like tone, “Come, join me.”

“Why are you talking like that?” Frisk smiled.

Ern opened his eyes and struggled to keep a grin off his face.  “Because it’s fun to mess with people and act all wise when you know exactly what’s going to happen.”

Frisk sat down in front of him like she usually did in her alternate-timeline-prior three years.  “So what am I learning from you today?”

Suddenly Frisk was standing back in the entrance to the arena, Ern’s back to her as he sat cross-legged in the middle of the floor.  She cautiously approached him, expecting anything to happen as she had learned to do when another DT she would be in a fight against would reset throughout the battle.

“Quick-loads,” Ern answered her now never spoken question as she crept closer to him.  He leapt up from his spot on the floor and whirled around to face Frisk.  “Making saves and loading those saves is the primary way DTs experience things and protect themselves in case of emergencies.  Loading those kinds of saves are much more precise, to the very instant when you made them.  The downside, though, is that they take some concentration to perform, so they’re not very applicable in fast paced fights.”

He suddenly lunged at her, throwing a rapid fist toward her gut.  She was about to reflexively deflect it and retaliate, when instantly he was standing in front of her in the same spot just before he had begun to swing.  “Quick-loads, however, are just the opposite.  Not as precise – you might go a little further back than you meant or even not go back far enough – but the perfect tool when things are rushing down on you and you only have a second to respond.”

“Okay, so how do I quick-load?”

“It takes lots of practice,” Ern explained.  “I’d say take a month or two to learn it, but you should definitely make a strong habit out of it to really master it.  It’s a lot like making a normal save, only instead of focusing on your entire situation, you just grab a quick snap-shot of the essence of the scene.  Something that defines it all just enough that you can go back to it, while not being so much that you need to process all of the various angles that define that instant.  The point of quick-loading is that you don’t have time to process; you just need to jump from one point in time to another without asking questions.

“And again,” Ern went on, “it’s much less precise – normal loading means you need to consider all of the facets of the save, as well as the surroundings when making the load.  The way you say I taught you how to load is more akin to quick-loading, where you don’t worry about the details of what or who’s around you and just make the leap.  And more than that, sometimes you might not think the detail you’re focusing on happens when it actually does, so it’s common to undershoot a quick-load and not go back as far as you would’ve liked.  A good rule of thumb is to try to overshoot it; to rely on an instant you know for certain won’t cause any problems for you.”

Frisk tried to practice what he was saying.  She attempted to quickly focus on the sum of what Ern was saying, and even tried to focus on a single word he said.  She then felt herself fill up with Determination and expected to rewind back to when Ern was saying ‘And again, it’s much less precise.’

“Not as precise – you might go a little further back—,” Ern stopped himself.  He shook his head to clear his brief confusion, “That was you, right?”

Frisk nodded, but understood what he meant now by the process not being as precise as regular resetting.  “I was aiming for when you said ‘And again, it’s much less precise,’ but I think I just proved your point instead.”

Ern laughed at that.  “You’ll learn, newbie.  Take a month or so to get a handle on it.”

 Frisk did just that.  A little over a month of practicing her quick-resets allowed her to hone her mind toward more acutely noticing little moments of reprieve she could make quick-saves and load back to.  She could easily pin down Undyne and Asgore, and the fights she signed up for were even easier.  She could feel Chara deeply impressed with her progress, and he expressed how inspiring it was to see her use her abilities more and more.  She felt proud of herself, how capable she had become at it in such a relatively short amount of time.  She found she was even good enough at it to play a prank on Ern.

She and many of her other friends she had made down in COUGH sat around a table, some of them eating lunch.  Ern was relating an epic fight he spectated between a Bravery and an Integrity soul, a soul type that Frisk hadn’t actually seen much of in her time in COUGH.  Ern was acting out an intense moment of the fight, and lightly swung a fist toward his own face in demonstration.  Frisk seized the opportunity and began quick-loading.  Ern was caught off guard, and began punching his own face, not able to stop the momentum of his fist between each of Frisk’s resets.  Amidst the laughter from other nearby DTs, Frisk playfully chanted, “Why’re you hitting yourself?  Why’re you hitting yourself?”

“Augh—!”

“Frisk—!”

“Stop—!”

“Cut it out, Frisk!” another DT disjointedly called out across several more of her resets.  “Don’t make waves!”

She battled more and more of her fellow COUGH members, Chara still aiding her alongside her new quick-resets.  _Duck.  Step left.  Right jab.  Jump back._   She and Chara had long since developed a strong communication with each other in battles.  Chara acted as another set of eyes for her while she fought, quickly directing her for things coming at her she wouldn’t be able to see.  Non-DTs just considered this secret bonus of hers a result of her Determination abilities, while other DTs simply thought she was just that good at fighting.  She would blast through the ranks this time around, she knew.  She might even get to fight Ern for the number eight spot eventually – that would be exciting.

 “Hey Frisk, how about a rematch?” a stiff, familiar voice called out to her one day.  Barr stood there, stone-faced as ever, though Frisk could tell he too was intrigued by how far she’d come in a short amount of time.  They stood in the main complex with the crowd around them quickly making space for them.  Barr held the number three position, and for good reason.  He was a master UPPER-marksman, as Frisk had experienced firsthand in her initiation to COUGH.  The immediate crowds around them all turned to gossiping and spreading the news: a match between Frisk and Barr.

Given that Barr was still a far distance ahead of Frisk’s position on the leaderboard, it wouldn’t be an official battle for rank, but it was still a big enough deal that Frisk found the railings above the arena littered with many faces – some she knew, others she’d never met.  Up in the center of the loft stood Doug Black, flanked on either side by some of the head scientists down there.

Barr stood across from Frisk similarly to how they were positioned in Frisk’s entrance exam.  This time, however, Frisk knew what a Justice soul was capable of, and wouldn’t be so easily blasted backward.  _Just focus on his shots,_ Chara advised.  _You’ve done this sort of thing before, with other Justices and with the Monsters.  Find the pattern to his bullets and exploit it to get close to him_.

Barr nodded at her and raised a finger gun toward her.  The conspicuous red glow arose out of Frisk’s chest as Barr’s hand began to glow yellow.

A gong sounded.  “Dodge,” Barr called out.  Frisk was already charging him, analyzing every useful detail she could focus on for her quick-resets.

She caught Barr’s ever-immovable face break into a smirk for a split-second.  Rather than a spray of weaponized UPPER coming out of his hand toward her, she was met with something much more abrupt.

An entire solid wall of yellow light materialized right out of the air between her and Barr, rocketing toward her at undodgeable speeds.  _WHAT THE—!_ Chara exclaimed.  Undodgeable, at least, for anyone that would have lacked reset abilities.

Frisk decided to restart back to before the gong sounded, hoping to overshoot a little according to Ern’s advice.  Barr stood across the arena floor from her, and was just raising his hand toward her.  Some of the DTs on the railing were hollering and cheering.  _Okay,_ Chara sounded a little shaken, _charging right for him is a bad idea.  Let him make his move first this time_.

The gong sounded again, and Frisk and Barr lit up.  Barr gave his pseudo-advice to dodge while Frisk got into a more defensive stance, waiting for whatever attack he was going to dish out.  The two stood there for a tiniest bit longer than Frisk would have thought was right, before she suddenly noticed her shadow extending toward Barr’s end of the arena.  She began to turn around and could only see yellow light about to overtake her from behind.  _RESET!_ Chara called out.

Frisk was facing Barr again, a brief echo of the gong sounding in her ears.  _Alright let’s just go for evasive maneuvers.  Just run, and watch for anything,_ Chara directed just as Barr was calling out, “Dodge.”

Frisk ran around, strafing around Barr while constantly watching her back.  He kept his extended finger pointed toward her no matter where she ran.  At least she wasn’t being met with a barrage of bullets or any sudden walls of Justice-brand UPPER.

Suddenly, Barr shot his extended hand toward the ground.  The floor beneath Frisk’s feet began to glow yellow, and she immediately dived out of the way of the column of light bursting from the floor.

“These are non-lethal, right?” she called out to Barr.

“Of course,” he answered, sounding almost offended.  “Dodge.”

The floor around Frisk began to light up and solid walls of Barr’s soul power surged upward.  She wasn’t entirely contained, and she quickly found herself in a maze.  Chara kept track of her movements, telling her which ways she had already gone down and keeping her from getting lost.  The crowd above her had grown considerably, the roar of cheers and shouts creating an ambient background noise as she tried to solve the labyrinth around her.  A few people started shouting directions to her from up above, which was met with the walls slowly closing in tighter around her.  Every pass had some trap that Frisk only barely managed to escape, from bullets flying out of the bright walls to whole corridors snapping shut behind her.  Barr had her, and it was clear he could easily defeat her.  She was about to reset when Chara stopped her.

_Let me take him.  I can do it._

It had been several years between Frisk and Chara that they had been together.  Frisk no longer had any fears of Chara betraying her by doing things she wouldn’t want.  Still, a tiny feeling poked her from the back of her head telling her that it probably wasn’t a good idea to give Chara control of this fight.  She ignored the feeling, though, having total confidence in her soul-friend’s capabilities to do what she was simply not powerful enough to do.

She relinquished control to Chara, and she found herself hovering next to her body.  Chara deftly ran around sharp corners and slid through the closing corridors, passing through the various traps much more elegantly than Frisk.  Frisk didn’t let Chara use their body as much as her, but Chara was still quite nimble and well trained, and as intelligent as ever.  Frisk looked up to the balcony and locked eyes with Doug, and felt like he wasn’t looking at where her body was going, but at _her_ , floating next to her body.  A chill came over Frisk as Doug’s eyes narrowed, as though he was trying to read fine print writing.

Frisk pulled her attention back to Chara’s actions and found they had been boxed in completely.  The walls were slowly crawling closer, Barr theatrically finishing the fight he knew he was about to win. _“What now?”_  Frisk thought toward Chara, _“Should I reset?”_

Chara looked around at the walls, trying to get his bearings straight.  _No, not yet._   He was silent for a few more precious seconds, as though considering something. _Frisk,_ he began to ask, _do you trust me?_

What kind of question was that?  _“Of… course,”_ Frisk hesitantly thought, not sure what Chara was about to do.

 _Good,_ was Chara’s only reply.  Frisk felt like Chara had just let go of something they had been holding onto for a long time.  Chara then extended his hand toward one of the glowing walls.  Frisk expected to watch him get burned or go flying like the first time they got hit with Barr’s power.  When she saw that nothing of that sort happened when Chara touched the wall, she then assumed the walls were just a bluff to keep them running and waste time in their fight.

But then Frisk felt something… strange.  Like she was… tired?  Or… she couldn’t… put her finger on… what it was… Chara…?

Frisk’s vision had gotten paler, and was darkening around the edges.  She watched Chara handle the glowing wall, though she couldn’t quite process what was happening, what Chara was doing.  She watched as the wall disappeared into Chara’s hand.  Then another wall.  Then another.  Chara stood there in the same position, as walls were getting sucked up into his palm.  Frisk could hear the crowds above rumbling and murmuring, themselves not understanding what they were seeing.  Suddenly there were shouts; someone screamed.

More walls parted away and Frisk could see a huddled mass on the floor of the arena.  It was Barr.  He rolled over and was clutching at his chest, and he looked deathly pale.

 _“Chara,”_ Frisk groaned out a slow thought to them, _“Chara… stop!”_   She extended a ghostly hand into her body to try to push Chara out and regain control.  Chara wasn’t budging, but she did cause him to lose his focus on sapping the UPPER out of Barr.

 _I asked you if you trusted me, Frisk,_ Chara seethed. _I’m doing what you couldn’t do._

Suddenly something hit Chara out of the corner of Frisk’s ever-dimming vision.  Chara let out a yelp, as they too were pinned to the ground by an unseen force, as though they were suddenly too weak to get up.

Doug Black, his chest brimming with the shade of his namesake, held a hand extended out toward Chara, his other hand balled into a tight fist.

“RESTRAIN HER,” he angrily barked, and several uniformed employees came over to grab Chara, while several of the scientists strode over to Doug’s side, whispering observations to him and to each other.

As Chara and Frisk slowly fell unconscious, Doug looked Frisk’s body in the eye with a look so stern it could stop a freight train.  “You have much explaining to do, young miss.”

Frisk finally felt control of her limbs return to her in the final moments of consciousness, and a tiny, weak message from Chara, saying, _You should have trusted me._

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Frisk awoke on a bed in a small, metallic room with a single, reinforced door.  A camera up in one of the ceiling’s corners followed her movements as she slowly wandered around the edges of the space, wondering what had happened.

 _You became complacent,_ came a reply.  It was Chara, and they sounded somewhat disappointed, and somewhat remorseful, which was not an emotion Frisk was entirely sure Chara was capable of feeling.  _Three years, and you forgot what I am._

Frisk sat down on the bed.  _“I didn’t forget.  You had proven how friendly you could be, that you weren’t trying to steal control from me to… go on a rampage.”_

_You’ve mistaken friendliness for usefulness.  And just because I’m not trying to steal control doesn’t mean I don’t want to destroy._

Frisk was unsure what to think about that.  _“And what about helping me with my past scars?  That was a good thing you did.”_

_That was a necessary thing I did.  You wouldn’t be the way you are now if I hadn’t dealt with your weakness.  You’d be an emotional wreck, incapable of the things we could do.  And where would I be?  I could take control, but with you whimpering about what I’d be doing all the while, it would only be a matter of time before you gathered up the strength to force me out again, or at least distracted me long enough for me to get taken down.  Just like now.  I needed you to be strong, to be on my side about all of this.  I needed you to trust me, but it seems that was wrong for both of us.  You still hold reservations against killing despite the obvious way the path we’re on leads._

_“I’m not a killer,”_ Frisk resolutely replied.

 _It doesn’t matter what you think you are,_ Chara retorted, their tone twisted with annoyance. _What matters is what you’ve done and what you’ll do.  Isn’t it obvious already?_ We’re _the disaster everyone’s looking for, Frisk.  You, who singlehandedly wiped out almost all of the monsters, and me, who destroyed everything else.  Together, back on the surface, we pose a greater threat than anything anyone has seen before!  And just look at how well we work together, how efficient we become when we put our minds and our powers together!  Working with each other, nothing could take us down – we could have been unstoppable!_

 _“But that’s not what I want!”_ Frisk argued.

_Of course that’s what you want!  You killed the Monsters because you wanted to see what would happen, what the experience would unlock.  You learned how to fight because you wanted to be strong, to get to the ‘top of the leaderboard.’  Really Frisk, in the grand scheme of things, what point does a rank and number in a scientific agency really afford you beyond the sheer thrill of it itself?  Of course this is what you want.  But you’re still weak, you still think taking a life is the worst thing anyone can do.  In case you forgot, you have time powers – you can reset and live a happy life or kill everyone whenever you feel like it.  Sure, there’s the complication of other DTs who’d remember what you did, but that’s not too difficult to work around.  The only thing holding you back is your stubborn arbitrary sense of ‘morals.’_

Flashes of the terrible memories began to crop up again in Frisk’s mind as Chara spoke.  _I’m not going to protect you from these anymore; you need to get strong enough to deal with the memories on your own._

Frisk fought in her mind, trying to push away the thoughts and memories of her genocide run.  The more she resisted, however, the stronger they began to pile up.  She could feel Chara adding more and more weight to the pile and was close to being crushed under it all.

Suddenly the door to her small chamber opened, and instantly the thoughts felt like they got blasted away.  Chara began demanding what was happening while Frisk felt a wall in her mind between the two of them get constructed seemingly from out of nowhere.  She could still feel Chara’s presence with her, but she could no longer hear him or feel anything he was feeling.

Frisk looked to the door saw someone she realized she hadn’t seen in a while standing in the doorway.  With a bony hand still on the knob, Sans grinned his permanent skeletal smile at her.  A white lab coat identical to the ones the other scientists of COUGH wore was draped around him, and his eye sockets were dark and empty.

He calmly closed the door behind him as he went to stand across the room from Frisk.  He pulled out a small device from one of his pockets and looked into its screen for a moment before he began to speak.

“Kid,” he addressed her, shame filling his tone, “You’ve gotten yourself into a pretty big mess.”

Outside the chamber, on the other side of the camera, Doug Black and several of his colleagues watched the exchange that was about to unfold between Sans and Frisk.  He had pulled his attention from the screen to read the report on Barr’s condition in the infirmary.  Doug was mentally kicking himself, worried that he might not have acted soon enough.  The KDs were working on healing Barr, but it seems the child had absorbed a great deal of Barr’s UPPER.  Doug could sense that something was too different about Frisk – she appeared to have twice the power of a normal soul, she felt like two people instead of just one, and the rate that she had been learning her abilities was only realistically possible if she had been having constant help.  Doug had set up the fight between Barr and Frisk, hoping to get some conclusive and maybe even useful result out of it.  Maybe he could learn how Frisk had gotten so powerful and could replicate it for everyone else.  Instead one of his best was now in the infirmary, and Frisk and this ‘Chara,’ – as Sans and the other scientists had explained to him – would have to be constantly monitored.

“I get what you were saying, sir,” a bushy-haired young adult commented to Doug.  “That ‘Chara’ guy feels really nasty.  If he still had the UPPER you took out of him, he’d smash right through the mind-shield I’ve put up for Frisk.”

Doug just slowly shook his head in frustration.  He had been briefed by Sans about whatever history this child, Chara, had and what they were capable of.  If there was ever a time in Doug’s life that could be considered the top of the list of what he did not want to see in the world, this was now far beyond that point.  Though he controlled his emotions and restrained himself from taking any further action, Doug could feel that he was filled with pure **Hatred**.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY! Back in business!   
>  Sorry for that big unexpected hiatus everyone. I don't really have any excuse for why it occured - best I can say is I got burnt out posting chapters as soon as I had them written. I have more of a buffer now, though, and while Chapter 7 is just about ready to go, I'm gonna wait on posting it. Don't really have an update schedule set up at this time, but I can assure you that it'll go up within the next week here (so at latest next Sunday).   
>  I'll also probably be updating the previous chapters with edits and some rewrites eventually. I've already found several mistakes that I want to fix up, though for continuity's sake for those of you who've read this far I won't change anything at this time. I'll let you all know when/if that occurs before this fic's completed.   
>  Anyway, thank you all so much for the kind words and I'm loving that you're loving the story so far! Let's hope this "next part" goes well, since it seems Frisk and Chara are in quite a pickle!


	7. Patience

Frisk stared at Sans.  “You’re a member of COUGH now?” she asked incredulously.

“Neat, huh?  Turns out I took that job offer from Mr. Black after all.  Not that it’s my first time working a job like this.” Sans’s eyes regained their friendly glow for a few seconds, but then turned dark again as he got back on topic.

“We’ve done a lot of studying about you, kid.  And the bulk of it’s just been in the last twenty four hours.  We had to keep you sedated so we could figure out what’s been going on with you.”

Frisk blinked.  “Studying me how?” she hesitantly asked.

Sans shook his head, not willing to give that information to Frisk.  “I know about Chara, kid.  I didn’t believe it at first; the first human child to ever fall into the underground, one of the prized children of the royal family, back from beyond the grave and buried in the mind of the savior of all Monsters?  At least, that’s the version of you I remember.  But then I saw all the data and readings we were getting from you, and the timelines, well,” he gestured to the device in his hand, and showed its display to Frisk.

On it were figures of dozens of timelines, all of them ending halfway up the screen except for two, which began to get tangled up in each other until one single line rose out of the unfollowable mess and up to the top of the screen.  “Let’s just say you’ve caused one heck of a cataclysm for the multiverse at large.”

Frisk couldn’t look him in his darkened eye sockets and instead chose to look at her feet on the ground.  Sans continued, “I don’t know what exactly you did, but from what I can assume from the data we have, in one of these two longer timelines, I’m probably dead, along with everyone else.  And the tangled mess before the timeline resets and comes back around to our current one has Chara written all over it.”

Frisk looked back up at him questioningly.  She couldn’t bring herself to say anything though, but Sans picked up on her unspoken concern.  “There’s more about the first Fallen Child than what’s recorded in our history books, and only a few of us monsters know – only a few of us are left to remember.”  Sans pulled up a chair from seemingly nowhere and sat in it before continuing.

“Chara and Asriel Dreemur were the pride of the kingdom in those days, but they were also pretty big trouble makers, too.  No one knew why exactly Chara fell down into the underground, what he was running from, but it was known that his falling down was for a very grim reason.  Everyone gave their love to Chara, tried to make him feel like he belonged, like he could have a happy life down there.  But it wasn’t enough for him.  Chara had a deep hatred for humanity and hated themselves for being human as well.  If you follow the recorded history, it’s clear Chara was the one who ignited King Asgore’s declaration of vengeance against humans, even if it was after Chara had already killed himself.

“But Chara was wrong about one thing,” Sans said, his voice growing darker.  “See, the royal scientist at the time – before Alphys – had been studying Monsters’ magic and the power of our souls, to see how much power it would take to destroy the barrier over the underground.  They found the power in a Monsters’ soul to be insignificant in comparison to the power requirement to disable the barrier for even a few seconds.  A human’s soul, however, could do it – and seven human souls could undo it entirely, as you know.  And lucky for the kingdom at the time, they _had_ a human – or so they thought.

“It turns out, after doing a few careful studies with Chara about their soul – while they could allow a Monster to break through if their souls’ powers were combined – they themselves weren’t strictly human.”

Frisk looked up at Sans in shock and disbelief.  He held up a skeletal hand to let him continue.  “The finding was buried, the royal scientist told to keep it a secret: that for all intents and purposes Chara was to continue being seen as human.  Personally, I don’t think that did much good.  If he had been told about his true nature, he probably wouldn’t have felt the need to off himself in the way he did, given his blatant hate for all things human.”

Frisk had found her voice while Sans had been telling her all of this.  “If Chara isn’t human, then what is he?”

“He’s neither - neither human nor monster,” he answered, bitterness clearly present in his voice.  “You’re still a part of Operation Escapement, the inner circle of COUGH, so you might as well know: There are a total of ten possible soul types that have been discovered.  Eight of them belong to humans: Determination, Perseverance, Integrity, Patience, Kindness, Justice, Bravery, and Hatred.  At the end of your fight with Barr, Chara was demonstrating the power that belongs to the Hatred type.  Monsters have one soul type, which the scientists around here refer to the ability as ‘Active UPPER,’ or pure magic.  It’s why Monsters’ souls seem so much weaker in comparison to a human’s, our souls don’t store UPPER or magic or whatever you wanna call it, they let it flow through them and use it as it comes to ‘em.

“Chara has the last soul type, the rarest kind, one we don’t really have an official name for.  Most of us just call it an ‘Error’ soul.”

Frisk repeated the unofficial name questioningly, understanding the implication that would be behind it. 

Sans nodded at Frisk’s rhetorical question.  “Basically, Error souls aren’t meant to exist.  By nature, they’re anomalies.  Souls who’s UPPER is constantly in flux, where it can’t settle on any one type, no matter how close it might get.  As a result, they have the capacity to take on the traits of all other soul types, even though they’ll never be satisfied with any one state of being.  Sometimes they’ll try to gravitate toward one soul type over the others, but it takes a huge amount of LV to get there.”

Frisk nodded slowly at all of this.  Sans’s eye sockets had slowly been lightening up as he explained, but then got dark again as he went on, “But what’s more, Error souls can’t consume other souls.  Their constantly chaotic nature prevents that.  The only way they can merge with another soul, in the way he and Asriel were connected; in the way he and _you_ are connected, is if they were _let_ in, a connection forged with a deal of some kind. ”

Frisk remembered floating in the empty void, speaking to Chara after they had destroyed the world.  Chara said they would put it all back in exchange for ownership over their soul.  She couldn’t bring herself to look Sans in the eye socket again.

“Frisk,” Sans spoke sternly, “What did you do?”

The memories were coming back again, though this time it was of her own accord and not from any influence of Chara’s.  She could feel her eyes filling up with water.  Sans remained silent as the tears began to finally spill over, Frisk too overcome to speak.

“Well,” Sans said after a few moments, his tone having stepped back to being slightly more tender, “I can probably put the pieces together.”  He shook his head and let out a light groan.  “Kid, a soul like Chara’s… They threaten all of reality as we know it.  As shown by what’s happened to the timelines, they had more than enough power to wipe out all existence.  We were lucky that Chara still had you to deal with, so everything got reset.  But if they had their way now, none of us would be here, and Chara’s soul would finally be able to rest while what remained of him would fade away into the void.”

Frisk was trying to control their crying, and through the flowing tears and hiccups struggled to speak.  “I- I made a terrible mi-mistake.  And b-by the time I had… made it, it was too late t-to take it b-back.”

Sans closed his eyes and shook his head.  “Chara should have stayed dead.”

Frisk’s crying had slowly turned into sobbing as the images of her killing her beloved friends flashed before her eyes.  New images were popping up now.  She imagined standing over the bodies of new victims.  Her new friends - humans.  The monsters that had survived, that had made it up to the surface, all piles of dust.  She imagined herself standing side by side with Chara, the two of them gleefully tearing everything – flesh, plant, stone, energy, time, magic, all of existence – apart with their powers.  She wanted it all to stop.  She wanted to reset, to undo her mistake of trusting Chara.  She wished she could undo the deal she made with Chara, undo her genocide run, to take it all back.  Even if she could manage her abilities through her emotions, there wasn’t any save she had within her that she could go back to.  Not one where Chara was out of the picture, at least.

Frisk’s sobs had gotten too far out of her control, and she found herself kneeling on the floor, begging for forgiveness, for some way from Sans that it all could be fixed.  At that, Sans’s detached and angry demeanor broke, and he knelt down to hug his friend and console her.

“Frisk,” he said soothingly, “I and everyone else would gladly forgive you in an instant.  You’re our friend, the one who freed us from the underground.  What you did… none of us remember anything like that happening.  You were foolish in what you did and why you did it, but you also weren’t aware of the consequence of your abilities and using them in the wrong way.  You were driven by a thirst for LV and exploring the possibilities of the Determination power.  Even if you remember what you did, no one else does – none of the rest of us are affected by it, so of course we’d forgive you.”

Sans paused before his voice got much sadder.  “But ignorance of consequences doesn't put anyone above them. Chara’s presence makes all of that meaningless now.  He owns your soul.  If Chara manages to destroy everything again, this time it will be permanent.”

There was silence between them for a few minutes, other than Frisk’s continued sobs, though her crying had begun to lessen some.  They remained still for several more minutes, Sans holding Frisk in his lab coat and hoodie covered arms.  After a while, Frisk finally got around to asking, “What’s going to happen now?”

“We’ll have to keep a close eye on you from now on,” Sans gently informed her.  “We still need to confirm with the council, but we’re sure Chara is the threat they’ve been looking for.”  He pulled himself away from Frisk, hoisting her back up onto her feet.  “That means we can’t allow you leave the COUGH facility – not until we can find a way to fix all of this.  It’ll be safer for you to stay here, both for yourself as well as for everyone else.”

Frisk just stood there, staring at the ground while Sans went toward the door.  “I’ll have to tell Toriel the gist of the situation.  I can’t imagine she’d take the idea of one of her first children possessing the body of her current child very well.  But she’ll at least have to understand that it’s for your own safety for you to stay here.  And we’ll have to work something out with your school, since you won’t be safe up there either.”

Sans looked back at Frisk.  She had sat back down on the edge of the bed, still staring at the floor.  He sighed and shook his head sadly.  “Someone will come and get you in a few minutes to take you to the main living quarters.  I’ll collect whatever you’ll need to stay here comfortably.”  And with that said, he strolled out the door, shutting it with a heavy locking clunk behind him.

 

* * *

 

It wasn’t long until a group of COUGH employees came to collect Frisk.  A few scientists were there to keep watch of all of her actions, and she was flanked on either side by what looked like uniformed guards.  On her right was a woman with a dark blue ‘IG’ insignia on her uniform, and on Frisk’s left was a slightly younger looking man with an aqua colored ‘PC’ badge on his uniform.  It took Frisk a few moments to recognize the woman as the secretary she had met before.

“Her name’s Lily,” the man on Frisk’s left said.  Lily glanced at him disapprovingly.  “She was looking at you curiously, I figured she wanted to know,” the man defended.

Frisk looked at the bushy-haired young adult that was escorting her with Lily and the group of trailing scientists to the bunks chamber.  “Who are you?” Frisk carefully asked, not sure if she was allowed to speak given her circumstances.

The man smiled pleasantly at her.  The grin he gave her felt as though it was pushing her sore emotions away.  “I’m Kevin,” he greeted.

“Here we are,” Lily shortly announced.  A heavy, reinforced door opened and they entered the chamber Frisk had seen before when she was first being given a tour of COUGH’s facility.  Rows of bunk beds filled the space, and a few of them were currently being sat on by kids, teens, and a few younger adults.  All eyes were on her, but unlike before, no one said a word. Frisk looked behind them and saw the group of scientists peel off down a separate corridor just before the heavy door shut behind her.

“This will be yours,” Lily showed Frisk to an empty bunk-bed.  “Kevin will stay with you here.”  Kevin sat down on the lower bed with a small bounce, gesturing to Frisk that the top bunk was hers.

 “Sans will be back soon,” Lily said, ignoring Kevin’s constantly upbeat attitude.  “He’s gone with a few others of us to explain the situation with your mother.  Obviously we can’t tell her everything, but expect him to come back to you to make a full report of what happened when he returns.”

Frisk nodded meekly and Lily turned to leave Frisk and Kevin on their own.  Kevin lied back on his mattress.

“That’s Lily for you, always so rigid.  But that’s how you get to the top position in the leaderboards,” he exuberantly remarked.

“She has the number one spot?” Frisk was surprised.  “I thought she was just a secretary for Mr. Black.”

“Ha, no, Lily’s the most powerful Integrity I’ve ever seen.  I should know, I’ve gone up against her tons of times, and every time she’s shoved me up against every inch of wall there is.”

Frisk climbed up onto the top bunk and sat with her legs dangling over the edge.  “So you’re in the number two spot?”

“Yep!” Kevin happily responded, “Best mind-feeler around!”  After a slight thoughtful hesitation, he then added, “Probably.”

Frisk considered the badge Kevin bore.  “So you’re a Patience soul-type, right?  What’s your power?”

“Mind feeling, like I said.”

“So you know what I’m thinking?”

“No no no,” he shook his head vigorously, “It’s nothing like that: it’s all about the wild sea of emotions and intentions that people have.  Like a storm of pastels all swirling and surging through you.  And you, Miss Frisk,” he pointed up at her through the mattress, “Despite the turbulence, have no intention of hurting anyone.  It’s why you’re not in _serious_ trouble.  And you, Mister Chara, I don’t even know how to describe you.  And _you_ , Mister Kevin Nevik,” he rambled on, pointing at himself goofily, “Are one cool dude.”

 _“Kevin Nevik,”_ Frisk mused internally.  She waited for a witty response from her soul-mate, but realized the wall that had been put up between her and Chara was still there.  She prodded the mental structure, testing its strength.

Kevin let out a small laugh, “Stop, I can feel that!”

Frisk arched her head over the edge of the bunk to stare at Kevin.  He smiled back up at her.  “I’ve been assigned to stick with you,” he explained without being prompted to. “At all times, I’m supposed to keep you and him as separate as possible, even in my sleep.  Not that that’s any challenge,” he gleefully gloated.

Frisk recalled that back in the metal room, the wall in her mind went up just as Sans came in to speak with her.  Kevin must have already been waiting outside.  Kevin went on, “That jerk was really unloading a lot of negative emotions on you; you must have done something pretty bad to upset him like that.”

Frisk thought to herself and was astonished at how calm and clear she felt.  “Can you tell what he’s doing right now?”

“Right now?  Hmm,” Kevin focused on his abilities.  Frisk looked down and saw his chest very faintly glow with a sky-blue hue while she felt a tiny ripple wave through the wall in her mind.  “Feels like he’s made a dark little corner for himself to sulk in.  He was throwing quite the fit when I intervened, pounding pretty hard against my shield.  Guess Doug pulled a lot of UPPER out of him to keep him like this, though.  As long as I’m near you, Chara’s not getting anywhere near your mind.”

“Can he hear me?” Frisk asked.

“I assume only when you speak out loud.  He can’t interact with you in any way, but he can probably see and hear everything you can.”

“So is this only a temporary solution?” Frisk asked, refraining from the temptation to get her hopes up.

Kevin nodded, forgetting that Frisk wasn’t looking at him now.  “If you, me, and Doug all stuck together for the rest of our lives you might consider it a solution.  But short of that, eventually this Chara guy would get his strength back and figure out how to power through the defenses I put around you.  In the meantime, though, the lab coats are trying to figure out how to pull him out of you.  Expect a lot of tests in your future.  And they’ll be watching you pretty much twenty-four-seven.”

There was silence between them for a little while.  Frisk heard the conversations around them had picked back up, and felt that the gossip about her had most likely already reached unflattering levels.

“You know it’s funny,” Kevin remarked, “Humans have our soul types, all the different ways we store UPPER inside of us, and Monsters have their soul type, which is just using the UPPER as it comes to them, like a river flowing through a drinking straw.  Chara though, he feels like he doesn’t have any UPPER in him.  He’s… what’s the word… Paradoxical!  He seems so powerful and full of UPPER, and yet all of that can’t decide on a good happy direction to go in.  It’s like it just fades away and leaves a hollow shell where his soul should be.”

Frisk shifted in her seat.  She didn’t want to talk about Chara anymore for now.  “How do you get to the number two spot with only feeling people’s emotions?” she attempted to change the subject.

Thankfully, Kevin was eager to talk about anything interesting, especially if it concerned himself.  Or maybe he simply felt Frisk’s uncomfortableness and was humoring her – maybe even a little of both.  “Maybe I’ll show you in the arena sometime.  You seem like the teachable type.  Y’know, for an arrogant DT,” he teased.

“Arrogant?” Frisk repeated.

“Yeah, I bet Ern told you that being a DT is an ace over all the other types or something like that – That _can_ be true, but usually it’s not.  Not when you get down to what really matters.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”  Frisk was feeling more than a little offended.

“It means you don’t know how to focus,” Kevin kept giddily poking her ego.  “You don’t know how to perceive people’s true intentions and the emotions that drive their actions, the reasons they make their choices.  All that DTs concern themselves with is _what_ happens, and they think that’s enough.  I’m in the number two spot because I’m the master of knowing _why_ something might happen, and can respond appropriately without having to reset like you DTs or jump around like crazy like some Perseverance showoff.”

Frisk wanted to remain offended at that, but she also wanted to keep Kevin talking about his abilities and how they help him in a fight.  Plus, his consistently good mood was infectious.  “That doesn’t look like it makes much of a difference.  If you know something’s going to happen, you can work with it.  It doesn’t matter if you reset or not.  So what’s the importance of an opponent’s emotions?”

“Most people don’t know how to use their emotions,” Kevin answered simply.  “Resetting or not, you’re still just working with what’s right in front of you, the obvious route.  But did you know that if you get a Bravery soul mad enough, they’ll lose their grip on their ‘Tank Ability’?  They could take that anger and apply it toward tightening their grip on their power, but instead they get so sure of their invulnerability that they don’t focus and instead go into a blind rage.  They charge and dive right into a wall expecting to rebound unscathed, but usually they end up dizzy from the impact.  They might even knock themselves out, if you’re lucky!

“Or,” Kevin went on before Frisk could ask more questions, “you can more or less figure out around how many times a DT has reset by making an ordered checklist of possible moves and attacks in your mind.  Depending on how the DT reacts when the fight starts, you can logically figure out what they’ve already seen and play from there.  That’s what Barr was doing in your last battle against him.”

Frisk spoke up at the mention of Barr.  “How is he, by the way?”

“He’s recovering,” Kevin levelly stated, “Chara did some major damage to his insides, and I don’t mean his organs and stuff.  It’s not just KDs in there, they also have a bunch of Pats trying to repair his mind.”

“I thought he only had UPPER taken out of him,” Frisk lightly exclaimed, shocked.

“He did,” Kevin explained, his mood drooping a little out of respect.  “See, UPPER is what makes a person’s soul – the soul feeds its UPPER into a person’s brain, after which it outputs intelligence and cognition and all that complex stuff.  If a person’s brain gets damaged, that will produce bad effects anywhere from lessened physical ability to even death, but the base soul of that person is still fine.  So if the brain or whatever other part of a person’s body gets healed – and their soul is still there to reconnect with their body – they can get back up good as new.  If their soul gets damaged, though – if you take away enough of the UPPER that forms their soul – that’ll cause injuries even KD’s can’t fix, since the way they use UPPER is only useful toward physical effects, like a person’s body.  So that’s were Pats like me come in – we can work with UPPER on a soul and mental level.”

“So that’s also why you can’t read my thoughts,” Frisk added with new understanding while she moved to lie down on her mattress, “since you can’t control what my brain does.”

“Right,” Kevin said after nodding, realizing Frisk wouldn’t see him nod.  “I can feel what you’re feeling in your soul, in your mind, before it goes through the crazy complex mechanics of your brain.  But the conscious, verbal thoughts you have are the output from your brain, which is more physical, and out of my reach.

“So Barr,” he said, ending that tangent in conversation, “is more than likely going to be okay.  It’s not a completely understood science how the soul functions and how the UPPER all adds up to make a unique person with unique traits – not yet at least – but we know enough that us Pats can go in and rebuild someone’s inner-stuff while KDs monitor his outer-stuff.  It’ll take a while to do, but soon enough Barr should come out just fine, just as he was before the fight.”

“So why are you here with me instead of helping Barr?” Frisk wondered.

“Short answer?  Because Chara seems like they’re just that nasty,” Kevin told her.  “The longer answer is that Barr will be fine with or without my help, and you need someone to teach you how to control your own emotions.”

“But I’m a DT, I can’t control emotions,” Frisk began to protest.

“Everyone can manage their _own_ feelings – it’s your soul!  Granted, as a DT, the more prominent feelings your soul has will probably be more focused on time-based stuff, like when something happens or how long something takes – all that jazz. But you can still get a handle on how you feel.  With some help, at least.”

“So you’re a psychiatrist,” Frisk blandly pointed out.

Kevin made a dismissive sound.  “Hardly, I studied music back in my school days.  Though being a Patient soul type does give me an edge over most psychiatrics,” he reasoned.  “But I can feel that you need help, and I have the power to help, so it doesn’t matter what I am so long as you get better.”

“That still sounds like I’m being considered mentally unstable,” Frisk stated.

“That’s because you _are_ ,” Kevin responded matter-of-factly.

Frisk sat up on her bed and let out a small, yet no less demanding, “What?” before she saw Kevin standing next to their bunk.  His head was at the same height as where she had been lying, and though his body language looked relaxed and as chipper as ever, his facial expression had turned serious.

“Your mind is not stable, Frisk,” He laid out the information plainly, “From Chara acting as a parasite on your soul, to an unhealthy pursuit and use of LV, and to what feels like the massive dent murder puts on someone’s soul and the crater that leaves in the UPPER there, it’s no question just how damaged your soul has become.  That’s why I’m here: to help you heal, to keep a constant eye on you, and to be a friend when the things you’re feeling overcome you.”

As though to prove his point, Frisk flinched slightly when he casually mentioned murder, toward which he made note, “And we’ll definitely be addressing that when the time comes.  Though probably not in any method you’re thinking,” he brought his mood back up with a sincere, reassuring smile.

Frisk didn’t know how to respond, or if she even should say anything to that.  Kevin pulled out a phone and checked the time on it.  “Looks like they’re going to start serving lunch in a few minutes,” he said eagerly.  “I bet you’re starving after having been asleep for a full day.”

She hadn’t realized it until Kevin said so, but hidden behind the uncomfortable weight that sat in her stomach was the imploding feeling of a completely empty belly.  As if in agreement with Kevin, her stomach let out a noisy growl.  Frisk reached into her pocket to pull out her own phone and tell Kevin that she had her own food stored in one of the dimensional boxes there.

Instead, however, Frisk felt her now empty pockets and hopped down from the top of the bed to briefly pat around her pants to see if she had simply misplaced her phone in a different pocket.  She turned to Kevin, “Did they take my phone?”

“Oh, yeah, I think they confiscated that for testing – why?”

“No reason,” Frisk muttered sadly, the first effects of her confinement now finally sinking in, “I had my own lunch in there.”

Kevin blinked in pause, but then grinned.  He didn’t really understand what she meant by that, but he found it funny anyway.  “C’mon, the food’s actually decent here,” he said, motioning for Frisk to follow him to the facility’s cafeteria.

Frisk hesitated following him for a few seconds while Kevin strolled down past several rows of beds, and instantly she could feel the barrier in her mind thin dramatically as Kevin got further away.  He let out a quick panicked cry after a short moment longer and scrambled back over toward Frisk as though he was on a bungee cord.  “Right, one last thing I didn’t really touch on,” he started apologetically.  “When they assigned me to stick with you, they meant that literally: where you go, I go, and vice-versa.  If we get too far apart, that shield I’ve put in your head will collapse, and Chara would be free to do whatever bad things they want.”

Another hard truth of Frisk’s situation hit her suddenly at this news.  “How far apart is too far?” Frisk slowly asked.

Kevin looked at the distance he had walked before he had realized her mind had been fading out of his sphere of influence.  “I’d say don’t go farther than ten paces or so to play it safe.  Any more than that, and the shield wouldn’t be strong enough to withstand a larger blow from Chara.”

Frisk nodded thoughtfully.  “So privacy won’t be too big of an issue.”

“No,” Kevin said, gesturing for Frisk to walk with him this time, “though I will probably have to wait right outside the door in most cases.  Plus, you’ll have the added bonus of getting a front row seat to my fights.”

Frisk let herself smile at that.  “I guess you will too, for mine.”

Kevin made an uneasy face.  “About that,” he said, “I don’t think you’re going to be part of any matches anytime soon, Frisk.”

That was the third impact of her situation that hit Frisk.  But then she stopped herself to examine that feeling.  She hadn’t been so set on fighting before all of this – she remembered the days when she considered herself a pacifist to all living creatures, human and monster.  Had Chara really influenced her that much, and all without any complaint from her until now?

Kevin felt her reaction to his news.  “You’ll still keep your position on the scoreboard, at least,” he said optimistically.  “Maybe when this is all over, you’ll be able to get back into the ring and make your way up.  Maybe even get to spar against me firsthand,” he smiled.

Frisk shook her head.  “It’s just, I wasn’t always so intent on fighting and trying to climb to the top.  I think Chara might have tricked me into that.”

Kevin looked at Frisk with friendly concern.  “We’ll work on that,” he reassured her.  “The matches can be a good and fun way to exercise our powers, but if you start getting too intense with them, the COUGH officials will confine you in that little metal room you were in for a while, usually to let you cool down before letting you out again.”

Frisk was troubled by the words Chara had said to her that were rising back up in her mind.  _Of course this is what you want._   What if Chara hadn’t tricked her at all, and this merely was who she really was?  She shook her head more vigorously at that, trying to wipe the thoughts out of her mind.

Kevin took note of her feelings and the shake of her head and said simply, “We all have to face things we don’t want to, eventually.”  He didn’t know what was in Frisk’s head, but he knew it was going to be something that would fester until she dealt with it head-on.

Soon the two of them entered the cafeteria side by side.  The kids and teens that saw her started talking in more hushed tones, while the few adults that noticed her just gave her a sympathetic glance, since they knew a little more in depth about her condition.  She and Kevin got into a serving line with selections of various kinds of food.  Frisk noticed that a few dishes were labeled, “Monster food.”  She figured they must have been primarily for Sans, but wondered if there had been any other monsters brought into the various science agencies around there.

A small group of kids at a table behind her had suddenly gotten very quiet when she got within earshot of their conversation.  “Don’t worry, it doesn’t feel like anyone here has bad intentions,” Kevin reassured Frisk.  “I don’t think there’ll be any nasty rumors spread about you that won’t get shot down in the face of the facts.  COUGH tends to be pretty transparent, and I'd assume even for things like this.”

“What about Project Escapement?” Frisk whispered to him, making sure no one would overhear.

He raised an eyebrow.  “What’s that?”

Before Frisk could talk her way out of the hole she had suddenly walked into, she saw a table with several of her friends sitting around it.  Sven also saw her at that moment and waved over to her.  She and Kevin brought their lunch trays and sat down in the middle of the group.

“Oh hey, Kev,” Ern greeted.  He didn’t even glance at Frisk.  “Any update on Barr?”

Kevin shook his head, “Nothing major that I know of.  I hear they got the core of his Justice ability pieced back together, but other than that, he’s still comatose.”

Dustin sat across from Ern, between Frisk and Adeline.  Despite his rough-and-tumble appearance, he too showed mournful respect toward his direct superior on the leaderboard.  Frisk noticed he and Adeline were holding hands underneath the table.  She wondered to herself if they had already hooked up in the time that she had been busy practicing her abilities.  “I hope he gets better soon,” Dustan rumbled gently, “It’s a downright shame what happened.”

“Yeah,” Ern coldly agreed, “I can’t believe Frisk would do such a thing.”  He spoke as though Frisk wasn’t there, completely ignoring her presence.

Kevin and Sven silently looked between Frisk – who had slowly been ducking her head down between hunched shoulders without saying anything – and Ern before making eye contact with each other, sharing the same tense expression.  “Well this feels awkward,” Kevin stated bluntly, attempting at humor.

“You know that’s not fair on Frisk,” Adeline admonished her brother.  “That wasn’t her.”

“It sure looked like her,” Ern argued back.

“But it wasn’t her!”

“Oh, and you’re an expert on what happened now, huh?”

“Shut it, eight,” Kevin barked with authority at Ern, having quickly generated a force of carefully directed anger, causing Ern to seize up.  “We were all Barr’s friend, and he knew what he was getting himself into.  What happened to him is no one’s fault, especially since Doug was the one who put him up to it.”

“He did?” Frisk was surprised.

“Mr. Black wanted to test you,” Dustan told her.  “He felt something was off, and wanted to see if he could make it any clearer by trying to put you in a tight spot.  It was his idea to have Barr make that whole maze thing.”

Kevin chuckled, his happier state back again.  “If Barr ever pulled a stunt like that on me, he’d be the one in my spot.  Heck, I wonder if Lily could even power through something like that.”

“I bet she could,” Sven spoke up.  “Being an Integrity and all, she could turn all his stunts upside-down!”

“You’re always off messing around with that weird glove thing.  Have you even seen her fight?” Dustan teased him.

And so the conversation went on away from Frisk.  She only listened, though, since she could feel Ern’s sense of betrayal from across the table, and didn’t want to bring the conversation back on herself again.

“Have you met the new girl, Sven?” Kevin asked.

“Oh yes, the new Perseverance,” Adeline remarked.  “She definitely seems to own her type.”

“Who, Susan?” Sven asked.  “We’ve talked some, why do you ask?”

“Oh, no reason,” Kevin grinned.

Sven observed Kevin’s toothy smile for a moment and very quickly glanced at Frisk.  “I dunno, she seems pretty hyper to me,” Sven tried to play his feelings cool.

“That’s sort of what I meant,” Adeline clarified.

“What does the Perseverance type do?” Frisk asked.

There was a minor pause at the table as a few of them looked to Ern to explain to Frisk.  “Hey, don’t look at me,” he spoke, still bitter, “I’m not her trainer anymore.”

Kevin gave him a flat look before turning back to Frisk.  “Perseverances are kind of like DT’s counterparts: where DTs are all about resets and time, PVs are all about jumps and space.  You could say in a sense that they can teleport, though it’s more like they’re folding space around them at will, so they have to already be moving to go anywhere.”

Frisk remembered back to her three years where she was watching a battle between a Justice soul and a Perseverance type.  She didn’t really understand what she was seeing at the time, all she could see was the PV sort of blipping around short distances to dodge the Justice’s shots. At the time, she figured it was some power relating to super-speed.

“She seems good at it,” Dustin nodded, talking about Susan.  “I don’t think I’ve seen a PV jump as far or as fast as she has before.  Her hyperactivity probably doesn’t help.”

“It might even be a result of her power,” Adeline mused.

“I wonder if I’ll get to meet her,” Frisk said, always willing to make new friends.

“What, so you can drain her of her power too?” Ern rhetorically glared.

“Come on man,” Dustin pleaded, ashamed at Ern, “Even I can be a jerk, but I’m never this hotheaded.”

“I don’t know about that,” Adeline teased, which earned her a smiling glare from her boyfriend.

“We all know you’re upset, Ern, but don’t take it out on Frisk,” Kevin tried to reason with him.

“Don’t try to soul-probe me, I’m justified in my feelings.”

“Really?  Would you like to wake up Barr and test that theory?”

“Thanks to her, you can’t!”

“Thanks to me, Barr might be able to wake up!” Frisk defended herself.

“What the heck is that supposed to mean?” Ern looked at her like she spoke jibberish.

“Heya kids, mind if I cut in for a sec?”  Sans suddenly plopped down in a seat uncomfortably close to Ern.  “You’re all drawing a lot of attention to yourselves over here,” Sans muttered to them all.

Several of the groups at surrounding tables had turned to witness the heated argument that was happening.  “So I have good news, better news, bad news, and worse news.  The good news is, Frisk,” Sans began, “Toriel took the rundown of what’s happened well enough that she’s agreed to let you stay here – surprising, I know.  But it’s not like she had much of a choice, considering.”

“Better news,” Sans was now addressing the rest of Frisk’s friends, “Your friend Barr’s gonna pull through.  There’re still a few things left unsettled in his soul, but he’s put back together enough that he’ll be up and around pretty soon.  They expect there might be some discrepancies in his personality for a while, but they figure those’ll fill in naturally as his soul heals itself the rest of the way.”

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at that, before Sans continued on with the bad news.  “The bad news is, in light of these events, COUGH’s public face is going into lockdown mode.  This doesn’t mean anything in terms of people coming and going, but it does mean that if anyone talks about any of the recent events outside of COUGH to anyone, the penalties have been figured to be anywhere between expulsion from COUGH, to paying a large fine to the city.  There’ll be a bigger announcement made about this later today outlining the offense and need for sudden secrecy.”

“And what’s the ‘worse’ news?” Frisk asked with trepidation.

“Your first test begins once you’re done with lunch,” Sans answered.  “I’m here to collect you and make sure you get there.”

Frisk bowed her head while Kevin nodded for her.  “What’s the test entail?” he asked.

“For now, that’s privileged information,” was all Sans could tell him.  “There’s some things we can’t disclose to all of you just yet,” he locked eyes with Ern, “but trust that no one’s at fault, and everything’s being set right.”  Ern pulled his gaze away, embarrassed.

Frisk watched Ern’s reaction and felt deeply sorry for her part in what had happened.  She felt like trying to openly apologize, but Kevin nudged her lightly and shook his head subtly at her.  Frisk looked down at the tray of food she had only eaten a little more than half of.  She was still hungry, but she didn’t want to be around here anymore.  She got up, telling Sans to lead the way.

Sans, Frisk, and Kevin left the cafeteria with her friends watching her go from behind, each of them with widely varying expressions and attitudes toward her.  Navigating the halls, they soon came to a deeper section of COUGH that was marked as being for authorized personnel only.  Inside, Mr. Black was talking with several adults in lab coats about the upcoming tests for Frisk.  When he turned to look at her, she saw he had bags under his eyes, and his expression was contorted into not being sure if he should be angry at her or pleased to see she was still well.  When his gaze met Kevin’s, and Kevin gave him a resolute nod, Doug’s expression relaxed and tried to give Frisk a pained smile.

“Ready when you are, boss,” Sans reported, standing next to a console with various screens, panels, and indicators.

“Right this way,” Mr. Black ushered Frisk.  She was sent through an airlock set of doors into a heavily reinforced room with a thick blast-window on one side, through which she could see all of the scientists ready to perform tests on her.  Once she was on the other side, she saw Doug start explaining the purpose of the test to Kevin.  For a moment Kevin’s eyes got large, but then he quickly got a hold of his emotions and relaxed, nodding his approval with only a brief amount of reluctance.

Doug then turned toward the window to look at Frisk, and spoke through a small microphone so she could hear him in the separate room.  “This room is made of a very special material that took us ages to develop,” Doug’s voice sounded through the intercom.  “Thanks to the aide of DTs teaching us the technology, and several Integrities to put it all together, it took us no time at all to set all of this up for you.  I’ll spare you the finer details and just tell you that it would be quite difficult for someone – even someone like you – to destroy this chamber, much less break out and start hurting people.”

“What do you mean hurt people?” Frisk asked, suddenly afraid of what this test might entail.  She saw Kevin give her a saddened smile.  She felt the wall in her head ripple, and a gentle wash of peace came over her, trying to reassure her of what was about to happen.

Mr. Black went on as though Frisk hadn’t said anything, though it was clear he could hear her.  “We’re going to send various items into the chamber so we can see what effect you have on them.  Also note that I can still use my powers to subdue you if need be, though your powers will be severely dampened while in this chamber.  We want to see the extents of you’d potentially be capable of.”

Frisk suddenly had a bad feeling come over her as she began to realize what the test was.  She felt Kevin’s gentle influence battle that negativity away, still trying to give her support.

“Consider this your official entrance examination, Chara,” Doug stated with an air of sarcasm.  “And Frisk?” he added, more sincere, “Be safe.”  Frisk began to panic as she watched Doug Black look over toward Kevin and give him a hard nod.

Kevin gave her one last hopeful smile before his chest started glowing. Suddenly the barrier in her mind evaporated instantaneously, and the encroaching feeling of Chara’s soul surged forward within her.

She found herself outside of her body again.  Chara was using it to stretch, flexing the fingers and reveling in the feeling of being corporeal again, and this time by his own power pushing through Frisk’s soul, rather than by Frisk’s allowance.  He gave a pleased laugh, which Frisk was horrified to hear bursting from her own vocal chords.

“If there is any one thing our friend, Mr. Nevik, has demonstrated perfectly for myself and Frisk,” Chara spoke, and though it was with Frisk’s voice, it was intensely more sinister in tone now, “it’s the potent virtue of the long game: the principle of **Patience**.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, okay, this chapter almost didn't go up at a time I'd like it to be. AO3 was giving me trouble - and still is, somewhat - by cutting off a good 3/4s of the chapter whenever I tried to post it. The culprit? The little scene-transition thing I like to do with the heart symbols. It turns out I can't even post them here since it causes this note to cut off.   
>  ANYWAY, Chapter 8: Perseverance is next. I'll be starting up an unofficial, prone to more errors, 1 chapter per week schedule. That will most likely change, but for now this is what I'll try to stick to.
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks for reading, and I'm really super glad you're all enjoying the story!


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